Pacific Rim sends on a suicidal journey to find the world’s greatest GIANT MONSTERS! Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera, Attack on Titan and so very much more…
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Pacific Rim sends on a suicidal journey to find the world’s greatest GIANT MONSTERS! Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera, Attack on Titan and so very much more…
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I was really hoping for more Punch Out!!-style stereotypes, but it was still a nice movie without them. Now if only there was something related to Monster Hunter to watch…
SPOILER The Kaiju were just looking for a sled named Rosebud. Oh, and they were also ghosts the whole time.
Dang it! I responded to the wrong post. Curse my phone.
Yay! LaserTime, and Yay Pacific Rim!
That movie was awesome for what it was meant to be… Yet the U.S.A. apparently doesn’t deserve a movie like that, considering it got outsold by a crappy kids movie sequel, and an even shittier adam sandler comedy sequel. At least it seems the rest of the world is making up for their stupidity.
Anyway, can’t wait to give this episode a listen! =3
Ever since Chris tweeted about it last night, I’ve been waiting for this new episode to post! I’ve been hitting refresh all day! I can’t wait to put this in my holes.
I’ve been waiting for you guys to talk about this forever. Can’t wait to get off work now.
Liking this episode so far, looking forward to the part 2 with Bret that will come someday.
(In a perfect world this would get a re-edited with Bret doing commentary yelling at the podcast, constantly correcting things, especially dates)
Wait, Brett’s not in this episode? Curses! He’s obviously the authority on Godzilla, and kaiju in general, so it’s unfortunate that he couldn’t be there. It’s almost like Chris not being there for a Disney discussion. Nonetheless, I’m sure it’s still a great episode.
Also, we get it you don’t like anime Diana, no need to get going on and on about your hate, being so obnoxious about it. No need to brag about disliking things.
What, can’t tolerate that someone doesn’t like something you do? It’s not like she’s announcing it, she just scoffs about it when reacting to something shown or mentioned because well- she finds it stupid.
Not saying she’s right, just that you’re making a big deal about when it clearly wasn’t.
No big deal, but her ignorant comments on the subject were cringeworthy.
They weren’t really ignorant so much as they were generalizations. I am aware that there’s a lot of anime that’s worthwhile. But you can’t really claim that her gripes about anime aren’t valid when MOST of mainstream anime is most certainly guilty of them. (DBZ, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, just to mention a few.)
All of those shows are awesome though…
Eh, see, that’s where your mileage varies wildly. I admit that as a kid, i got sucker punched by DB, and then DBZ. But even then as a stupid 9 year old, after the Cell Saga, I started to realize the show was kinda just more of the same and kinda stupid, and by the time the Boo Saga had hit, i had moved on.
Then as I started college, and after getting hooked back onto anime thanks to Full Metal Alchemist, I gave Bleach a spin, amongst others. I actually got trough a LOT of bleach, but in hindsight, it really was just more of the same DBZ offered, just with more swords and shameless cleavage than DBZ. All those shows does have a lot of “cool” factor going for them, but when you actually start to analyze them, they are all kinda the same, and they are all kinda stupid.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan kinda epitomizes that for me. That show is super loud, super baddass, super colorful and always cranked up to 11. It sure is FUN to watch it mindlessly, and that’s fine, but try to even think about it a little, and it all then falls apart. And like all anime, is filled with squeaky voices, ansgty teenage drama, female objectification, and weird for the sake of weird. So all said, while that doesn’t bother me as much as DIANA, i definitely can understand why her and so many hate most anime 😛
I found her complaints ignorant but her problems valid, if that makes sense. That is, when she listed her problems with anime, I could accept all of them (except animation quality, I suppose).
Although actually, DBZ, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece are as far as I can tell not really guilty of ANY of those problems.
@Dr. Cakey: Bleach is filled to the brim with terrible and lazy animation, and so is DBZ. And while not in most episodes, both shows DID have the occasional shrill, squeaky voiced, annoying characters.
And if I remember correctly, another problem she had is that they took forever to get anywhere. If so, then in both cases, this is super fucking true 😛
@BladedFalcon: Yeah, I should’ve elaborated that in terms of animation quality I meant shorter and recent stuff. I actually have difficulty watching a lot of pre-mid-2000’s series because they can be painful for me to watch.
Funny thing is I am not a big anime fan, it was just going on a little too long and was a tad over the top. I have only completed a few series, I am far from a anime fanboy, only watch once in awhile. She was just too eager to loudly attack it, its not for some people sure. She just crossed into annoyance,
Attack it? All she said was “I can’t stand anime” and when pressed by the rest of the crew, she explained why. She wasn’t categorically saying that anime was crap as a rule, just that she didn’t like it. Pretty sure there’s stuff you personally hate or can’t stand, and pretty sure you’d express it just the same if were insisted upon.
It’s more can’t tolerate the fact that she’s only seen, like, 2 anime in her entire life and has decided that it’s all exactly like that.
Saying you can’t stand anime is like saying you can’t stand television. There’s as many different kinds of anime as there are TV shows in general anywhere else.
As someone that has seen at least 20 different anime shows, (I know that’s still not THAT many, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than enough to have gathered a general idea.) I will say that while yes, there is variety. Anime more than other types of television genres or shows, do tend to fall into a LOT of similar tropes.
Generalizing ALL anime as being terrible or the is of course wrong, since there’s many exceptions. But there’s a lot that do tend to have very similar and potentially annoying tropes. Such as the protagonist that is either a badass behaving or masquerading as a klutz/Idiot, or the angry teenager that somehow is super awkward and shy around women. All of which, OF COURSE are super hot and fawn over him, even the usual one which acts like she hates him and don’t needs men but deep inside men is all she craves. Then you have the nemesis that then turns into a rival and then even into a valuable ally.
Again, there are exceptions, but don’t try and deny that most shows, specially the mainstream ones, fall into these very similar and formulaic tropes.
“Anime more than other types of television genres or shows, do tend to fall into a LOT of similar tropes.”
I’ve found it to be almost the exact opposite.
Like I said, for every genre that exists on television, you can find an anime that mimics that genre.
If anime seems more tropey, it’s probably because all the anime your watching is from the same genre. From your descriptions, it sounds like most of what you’ve seen has come from watching Adult Swim’s lineup, what you call “mainstream”. And that all does tend to fall into the same archetypes because that’s what the AS anime audience likes.
But what you’re referring to as “mainstream” doesn’t even make up a majority of anime. So I’ll absolutely deny that most shows all fall into those tropes.
I wouldn’t consider Card Captor Sakura, Kanon, Hellsing, Trigun, Azumanga Daioh or Ruroni Kenshin to all share the same genre… Yet in all instance I do see common tropes still.
I won’t deny that most of the anime I’ve seen is probably not representative of the whole. But you also can’t deny that most of the popular animes that the majority of American audiences would be familiar with DO share enough similarities to make valid generalizations at least concerning what they know so far.
As I said before. Yes, Diana does make a mistake for piling ALL anime together with the few shows she might have seen or have been familiar with. But then again, could you really expect someone that has had such a distasteful experience with what little they’ve seen, to just go ahead and see MORE just to claim she knows more, and probably still dislike it all?
Also, like I’ve said before, anime in general DO have tropes no matter the style, time period or genre. Or are you going to deny that most of them don’t have high pitched voices, outrageously proportionated women, and huge eyes?
She didn’t go on and on like some people are implying, like a Henry-style Family Guy rant. Personally I think some fans of anime are waaaaaay to defensive, fanboy/girl even.
HOWEVER, Diana, I really enjoy you on the show, especially when it comes to film, for example I’m glad you pointed out The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (also Mikel and Tyler, I’m a fan of it, so there is at least one lol) came before Godzilla BUT I’m going to have to correct you on obscure film trivia:
Clint Eastwood was in Tarantula, not Them!, although Leonard Nimoy does have an uncredited role.
I will always be a fan of Diane for the “Fox fanfare” knowledge bomb she dropped a while back. That blew my mind, for some weird reason. Almost as much as the end theme for Muppet Babies just being the instrumental version of Little Muppet Monsters.
I also accept that anime will forever be a niche thing that you either love or hate. There’s almost no reaction for telling you watch anime between extreme enthusiasm, and being looked at like you’re a pedophile.
I’d consider myself kinda neutral regarding anime. There are shows I’ve genuinely enjoyed and to this day I don’t regret having watching them, nor do I think they are bad in hindsight. (Like Full Metal Alchemist, Rurouni Kenshin or Trigun.)
But then there’s a lot which even if I did like at the time, I do consider it to be either terrible, or a stupid guilty pleasure at best. (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan, Bleach, and so on.)
Ugh! I know! My friend corrected me on “Them” vs. “Tarantua” the next day and I felt like such a putz!
“Them”‘s still awesome, though.
Sweet, we finally got the Godzilla cast. Now all we need is a film to come out that’ll finally cause the Ernest episode.
I jumped the gun a little. Still want a Brett hosted Godzilla cast.
do you guys absolutely NEED diana to still be on the show? :\
what’s your problem with her?
Probably another guy that got his panties on a bunch because she said she hated anime. Because you know, yay tolerance and different views!
Anyway, if either Diana or Mikel read these comments, please don’t take those butthurt comments seriously? I actually find Diana very entertaining every time she’s own. Her knowledge of films is broader and gives nice perspective to the more focused view the rest have no movies. And she has a different, but still great sense of humor. I’d be very upset to see her appear less just because a bunch of intolerant whiners took offense of a dissenting opinion.
I second BladedFalcon’s sentiment.
Completely agree with you. Diana is always a fantastic guest.
Boo to you sir. Diana is great.
Dang it! I was gonna say this is totally a Brett podcast but he isn’t even here, which I have to admit is pretty disappointing. On the other hand, Chris I hope you flaunt the heck out of Attack on Titan cause I’m so close to just watching the whole thing since I see it everywhere.
Attack on Titan is pretty great. I sort of dropped out of the anime scene a few years ago, and the last thing I’ve watched with any regularity was maybe Code Geass. Attack on Titan got me right back into the scene, however. It’s got its fair share of “oh shit, didn’t see that coming” moments, and the premise just grabs you from the outset.
I’m in like the same boat when it comes to anime honestly. At this point I just look for shows that do something different and watch those. I’m so ready to get into attack on titan.
My opinion of Attack on Titan so far was basically:
Episode 1-4: “Meh…”
Episode 5: “…huh.”
Episode 7: “FUUUCK YEAH!”
Any spoiler talk for Pacific Rim? Going to see it later today so I’ll probably just wait on listening until then just to be safe.
Chris hasn’t seen it at the time of recording and they really only talk about the trailers in the beginning so you should be good.
No spoilers in the least, they talk a bit about it in the first 10 minutes, but they don’t give any spoilers. So you’re safe ^^
Brett’s not here for the Godzilla discussion?!
i’m really glad you guys like shingeki so much, it’s really making big waves all over the place. and to have a bunch of guys who don’t normally watch anime talking about it is a testament to how powerful this show is. it is really bleak, but very refreshing.
I’m not even a huge anime fan anymore… but Diana going on, and on, and on, about her hatred of the medium, over, and over, and over, got old fast.
Tone it down a bit next time please, that was just obnoxious.
I demand Brett for the Pacific Rimcast!
Not having Brett for giant monsters talk, it’s like not having Antista for Disney and pedophilia talk.
how do you not mention MEGAS XLR!?
By growing up in the 80s and not watching current cartoons.
I’m a huge huge fan of that show and I even I forgot about it during this discussion. I do think its a show the cast would love though.
how can you like venture brothers but not megas xlr
sorry misread that
Holy shit, anime discussion on laser time that isn’t derisive? It’s about goddamn time.
Thanks a lot, Chris. I’d just gotten over my addiction to Attack on Titan’s opening, now I’m listening to it all over again. And again. And again.
Attack on Titan is a fantastic show, and I’m really glad it’s become so popular. Last year the show that made waves was Sword Art Online, and that was…ugh…so it’s good to see a QUALITY show get popular. And the best news? It’s not even the best show to come out in the last couple years (that would be Madoka Magica GO WATCH MADOKA MAGICA)
A discussion of the animation process is definitely something I’m qualified to do, but Japanese animation does suffer both from lower revenues than American material, plus what seems to be a harrowing production process. That aside, Attack on Titan is atypical in the animation department, both for the AMAZING action and camera, and for its “trust-us-this-will-be-finished-when-you-buy-the-Blu-rays” parts. This was an overly ambitious project that barely holds together at the seams, but I love it for that. Oh, and by the way, you don’t need no Hulu Plus to watch Attack on Titan. You can catch it for free on a one-week delay at Crunchyroll.com (yes, that’s legal).
I have no actual desire to flame Diana, so please replace this sentence with whatever vitriolic comments about her views you wish.
Also, I know no one else wants it, but I would listen to an Evangelioncast. Oh, and speaking of Eva, Evangelion 2.0 is far better than the first movie. It’s actually structured like a movie instead of a bunch of TV episodes mashed together, and the plot begins to diverge from the series.
That should be, “A discussion of the animation process is definitely something I’m NOT qualified to do”.
Typing!
after Chris pushed Attack on Titan on Cape Crisis I got bored and checked it
out. now I’m 7 episodes deep, and the only reason I’m not further is because my gf caught a bit of the first episode and now demands I can’t watch ahead of her.
I don’t know nufin bout teh amines, but this is a show I recommend to all fans of fantasy, horror, sci fi, action or animation. try to watch the first episode and quit. I daaaaare ya
Yes! I love monster movies from vintage Harryhausen to Toho obscurities!
While this episode is loooooooong over due, Brett is essential for the subject matter given his teased passion in past episodes.
Chiming in to say that I never had an opinion on anime itself, but reading these comments, I sure as fuck hate anime fans. Get over yourselves.
Anime fans are basically the dregs left over who weren’t smart enough to be comic book fans. Let that sink in.
Yes, I am filled with self-loathing.
Your words sting, but they’re unfortunately true for a lot of anime fans. I went to this year’s AX, and some of the people there had me cringing, at how much they reminded me of myself 10 years ago.
I dont like a lot of anime as well, especially its more endearing qualities but I dont write off the whole art form, Diana is cruel……
How is this not a Brett episode!
By which I mean: Only Brett, talking about Godzilla for an hour.
Like anime but I agree with a lot of Diane’s comments on 90% of anime. I drift towards older shows anyways.
Why did I cut off “I” in the first sentence >_>
Good call on ‘Attack on Titan,’ Antista. Fucking titans are creepy as hell.
The third Transformers movie was really really bad.
When the transformers are presumed dead for a significant chunk of the movie and thus most of the action is Shia le Bouef leading a dumb resistance with his new girlfriend against the decepticons. And it has plotholes out the butt.
Transformers 1 was disappointing but not completely terrible.
This. I went into the third Transformers movie based on some positive things I heard from various geek movie sites. Smash cut to myself 1.75 hours into the movie, resisting the urge to stand up and yell “Hey, Bay…GO F*** YOURSELF.”
The first one is no prize, although I harbored a guilty affection for it for some time, but it remains the ‘best’ of the three. ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ of course, is a key component integral to re-opening the Hellmouth. I refuse to accept that sentient adults worked on bringing that into existence. I always picture a harried ILM animator coming home:
“How’d today go?”
“I…animated Devastator’s…balls…”
“WHAT?”
“You’ll find out” (takes swig from flask)
I don’t think that newest Godzilla movie is horrible for MOST of it, but it got pretty lame near the end.
Are you talking about Final Wars? That one was awesome. It was the only Godzilla movie I’ve seen, that I didn’t skip past the non-monster scenes.
I REALLY also don’t want to come across as defensive…I’m not a big anime fan…the number of series I’ve seen through to completion can be counted on two hands…and not everyone likes everything. I certainly don’t, so I offer these two suggestions for Diana (not that she hasn’t received hordes of them as is), in the interests of rejecting generalizations:
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – A well thought out, mature cyberpunk, and mostly free of the usual tropes (yeah, there’s some eye candy, but no more so than I any average blockbuster release…and the AI support tanks do have a tinge of the high pitched voice syndrome…fair warning)
Samurai Champloo – From the director of ‘Cowboy Bebop’, set in feudal Japan, with some modern stylistic quirks thrown in. VERY low on the tropes meter, and (for anime) low key humor. It also has a perfectly melancholy tone to it at times, especially the ending.
I would also recommend Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain. They’re the definition of anti-anime anime shows. Especially Texhnolyze, which begins as a bleak series and it just goes down from there.
Also anything created by Satoshi Kon (R.I.P. Kon) : Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent (anime series), Tokyo Godfathers, & Paprika.
I haaaaaaaaaated Ghost in the Shell and SAC *does hipster victory lap*
Diana should watch Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. Based on what I’ve gathered, as a straight female she is contractually obligated to enjoy it.
And with this crew, and the topic of this episode, how was their no mention of King Homer? Grimm would have mentioned it, I bet. This was the Candyapple Island of giant monster fighting episodes; there’s apes, but their not so big.
Or the giant mascots.
Truth. No mention of a rampant Lard Lad? For shame.
Man, if Diane gets bothered by something as tame as a panty shot, she’d absolutely HATE Berserk.
If seen 50+ plus anime, and while I got a little bugged by how insistent Diana was, I still love her being on and didn’t really mind. Even the things that some people might be fine with or not take issue with may put off others like it does for her. Having seen so many anime I do get tired of these things as well but that just leads me to seek out ones that don’t these things. I love a lot of the more mainstream ones, and absolutely love One Piece, but there are also plenty of others that don’t do the common annoying tropes.
The recent trend I’m noticing that actually contradicts a lot of Diana’s complaints, is that studios are doing a lot of shorter run shows that go maybe 20-30 episodes so they don’t end up wasting time with a lot of the bad tropes of trying to waste time. In some I almost wish they’d stay on certain parts a little longer because it feels like they’re almost cramming too much into an episode.
Some that I’d recommend:
UN-GO which is a short run detective show with a supernatural twist, set slightly in the future. It’s got a solid plot, good subplots within the main story, and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
Another that I’d highly recommend is Shinsekai Yori or “From the New World” which is a story set in the future yet humanity has regressed to a weird technology minimal society and instead rely on their psychic mental abilities known as Cantus that humanity had evolved to use. It starts out for the first few episodes as a bit mysterious and innocent but soon you start to notice as things are just not quite right. Once the story really starts going it’s very gripping and I found myself unable to get enough. In terms of tone, after the first few episodes it’s actually a lot like Attack on Titan, but there just less action. It draws many parallels to the book “Brave New World” as well, which should give some a better idea of what it’s like. It’s also so different from the norm that it doesn’t even feature an intro song. Only an opening ambient song that gets you into the serious tone of the show. It also jumps forward in the timeline several times, very much like The Last of Us, except sometimes it’s a year or more that has passed.
The last one I’d recommend is Psycho-Pass which is a futuristic crime show where in Japan they have left the complete control of society up to the Sibyl System which reads people’s “psycho-pass” from chemical cues and gives them a color rating which determines their mental stability. This goes so far as to determine what jobs you’re best suited for. When you are determined to be a threat because of your mental state, you are simply incarcerated in a mental facility to undergo treatment, but most are there for life. The people who are not caught early enough by the system are hunted down by the Bureau of Something can’t quite remember and this is comprised of detectives and enforcers, with enforcers being those who are determined to be mentally dangerous but are used as essentially hunting dogs for the gain of limited freedoms. A very intelligent action crime show with the characters being extremely interesting to the point where there discussions are as good as the plot itself.
I’ve seen tons of anime, but I feel like for those who may have put off anime for whatever reason, these are ones that get you back into liking anime a lot.
Apologies for the behemoth post. Spoiler tags for truncating and also an edit option would really come in handy. 😛
all the women who’ve guested on Laser Time have been great additions. glad to hear most of you agree.
as for Diana being opposed to anime, I hear ya. I can’t get into most of it. which is why I was surprised to get so enthralled with AoT. it’s a really well made show. I feel like the odd time they do touch on anime clichés that they’re primarily poking fun at it, and itll usually act as a comedic counterpoint to the abundance of horrific events in the story.
does that theme song remind anyone of the Dr Wily Theme from MM2?
I keep hearing “I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly”, which makes me self-loathing and sad.
Just for shits and giggles, I think Diane should be sat down and watch a few episodes of the new series FREE- Iwatobi Swim Club on Crunchyroll. I’d love to hear her come back with a follow up on that XD
Great call on attack on titan! I haven’t watched any anime since Dragonball when I was a kid, but based on Chris’ recommendation, I tried it out, and not only did get hooked, but the wife did too! Awesome show!
Finally chris checks out Japanese animation, I always found it confusing how a man could love 2d animation so much and ignore/hate? anime. There seems to be a pretty large divide between 90s kids and the previous generation. Diana came across as a little narrow minded with the hate, but she’s free to have her opinion (and it’s pretty common for people of her age I think), I know a majority of that hate emanates from the terrible weaboo fan base and not the actual animation itself. Judging all anime only on its most prevalent series would be like hating all movies because of transformers or all games because of call of duty, 95% of everything is shit, it’s weird someone so heavily invested in nerd culture doesn’t recognise this. 2d animation is 2d animation regardless of its country of origin and it’s a little sad that it’s become cool to hate on (not that it was the case here) anyways blah blah, old people die out opinions change maybe the west will treat 2d with the respect it deserves. Probably not but hey at least Japan does…….sometimes.
I don’t get how people keep saying the character drama in Pacific Rim is secondary to the giant monsters. Maybe it’s secondary to what you’re interested in seeing, but a HUUUUGE chunk of that movie is based on and revolves around the flimsy characters and their tragic, angsty backstories. I keep hearing that it’s *supposed* to be goofy and over-the-top, you’re not supposed to take it seriously, it’s just brainless fun. But Pacific Rim is actually trying really hard to be poignant and dramatic and to get you to care about the characters and their relationships to each other. If it actually embraced it’s goofiness and committed to just being crazy and fun, it would have been a much, much better movie.
I’ve avoided any topic that would have any anime in it on Lasertime, because I know I have nothing useful to say except I just really, really have hated every anime I’ve ever seen. (Miyazaki doesn’t count.) Unfortunately, Chris is super into that Titans thing he’s been watching and dying to talk about it, and I was blindsided, BLINDSIDED I TELL YOU.
I thought we’d talk about awesome giant monsters that are guys in suits or puppets, but noooo…
I know I’m generalizing, but I’ve earnestly given it a try. And I’m sure there are more recent things out there I could tolerate. Some things I’ve watched fine, but had a hard time enjoying. Some make me want to gnaw my own ears off. And when you hate something, it’s easier to see the flaws others forgive and it just gets worse and worse.
But thank (many of) you for saying my opinion is annoying instead of saying it’s wrong. (And that rant was the short version. Poor Mikel’s had to hear the long version, repeatedly, over the last 13 years.)
That being said, now I totally want to do a fundraiser where if you donate you get to pick an anime for me to watch and I livestream my reactions, which will probably make sailors blush and paint peel off walls. Because I know you bastards will pick the dumbest stuff, except for the ones who pick the best stuff to try to change my opinion, which I’ll probably not like either. That’s an endurance test way more difficult than, like a walkathon.
Somebody go organize that.