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Geek Therapy's anime and manga podcast.
Josué Cardona (00:02.254)
Welcome to Otaku Ryoho on the Geek Therapy Network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. And here on Otaku Ryoho, we're all about the anime and manga. My name is Josué Cardona, and with me is Rae Hoover.
Rae (00:18.374)
Bonjour.
Josué Cardona (00:19.768)
What's up, Rae? What are talking about this week?
Rae (00:22.879)
this week we are talking about Toonami.
Josué Cardona (00:26.05)
Why'd you want to talk about Toonami? What is Toonami?
Rae (00:27.548)
What what is what are a Toonami Now, I want to talk about Toonami because I love Toonami. It was what got me into anime. And I recently had an experience at a friend's house that was showing old Toonami stuff. And I was like, you can actually watch these still. And.
Josué Cardona (00:51.854)
Hmm.
Rae (00:52.828)
I felt like that was important. I felt like that was important to talk about here since we keep, we have referenced it every single episode so far. Granted this is episode three, but it seems like something we need to cover.
Josué Cardona (01:04.397)
I think Toonami is the anime origin story for most Americans in the... Let me look up the years 1997 through 2008. And then apparently 2012 it came back as a adult swim thing. Is that true? So there's still Toonami?
Rae (01:13.02)
The millennial.
Rae (01:20.923)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:29.658)
Mm-hmm. I think so. That was well after my time, but.
Josué Cardona (01:36.984)
Got it. So when, what, set the stage? How old are you? When did you watch them? Like, like what, years was this?
Rae (01:41.148)
[laugh]
Rae (01:45.552)
God, now I have to do math. I was definitely... I want to say about second grade. So that probably would have been about seven, eight years old. First, second grade, something like that. Definitely by third grade, but second grade. think I had a Pokemon lunchbox and I was really hype about that.
Josué Cardona (01:48.514)
What grade were you in?
Josué Cardona (02:10.894)
Okay.
Rae (02:11.45)
Yeah, so setting the stage, I was a little little Babby Rae here, eight years old or so, second grade. Discovered Pokemon.
Josué Cardona (02:23.341)
not Toonami
Rae (02:24.614)
Which is not Toonami but I think eventually kind of, was that not on Toonami? What was that aired on?
Josué Cardona (02:30.946)
I'm almost certain it never aired on Toonami, I might be wrong, but that was a WB thing. That was a WB thing, yeah. That was a Saturday morning thing, and then later on, I think in syndication, there were so many episodes that they did show it during the week, but it was originally like a Saturday morning thing.
Rae (02:37.018)
Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
Rae (02:48.516)
Yeah, Saturday morning, I definitely watched the WB Saturday morning block of the kid. And I know it was after school, too, because I was always like, we got to get home. It's on a three. We need to walk. I'm going to miss it. And I think it was on in the early mornings, too, occasionally, but I saw those less.
Josué Cardona (03:10.446)
Okay. Hmm.
Rae (03:12.72)
But yeah, Pokemon to me was not anime. I didn't know what anime was. Nobody did. We just we thought it was a cartoon and originally from Japan. Like. That's it.
Josué Cardona (03:25.292)
Yeah. Well, I have to do that in Latin America, anime hit way sooner than in America in a big way. So when I was very little, there were animation on like just regular TV and they were in Spanish and I had no idea that they were from Japan. No idea whatsoever. Like that, that that's what it was. I came to realize that much later. Like, I was watching Ranma one half when I was
Rae (03:31.76)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (03:46.053)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (03:50.886)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (03:56.311)
really small like like really really small because they just gave it it was just on in spanish yeah
Rae (03:57.809)
Yeah.
Rae (04:02.78)
Yeah, yeah, was just on and we just ate it up.
Josué Cardona (04:08.534)
Yeah. And then there were some Saturday morning cartoons, right? Like before we go deep into Toonami stuff, I think the Saturday morning cartoons that were animated that I discovered were...
Rae (04:14.268)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (04:25.336)
Pokemon, I think Digimon is an anime. Cardcaptor Sakura, and one of my favorite anime ever was actually first on WB. It's called Escaflowne. You ever heard of Escaflowne?
Rae (04:30.587)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Rae (04:41.751)
I have not.
Josué Cardona (04:44.718)
I don't even know if they showed the whole show, but it's also my first isekai, I believe. This girl gets transported into this other world that's like medieval, but they have, you're not gonna believe this, they have mechs, but they're made out of like dragon bones and things like this. And so like, look up what Escaflowne looks like.
Rae (04:47.324)
Probably not.
Mmm.
Rae (04:57.82)
Mm.
Rae (05:06.688)
Mm-mm. Okay. Heavy breathing.
Josué Cardona (05:14.686)
and you'll see, actually look it up, look at it right now if you can. Look up, it's spelled E S C L, no C A, S K F L O W N E.
Rae (05:16.965)
Okay.
Josué Cardona (05:30.946)
That's real typing, by the way, not a sound effect.
Rae (05:32.956)
Yeah, yeah, have the clackiest keyboard. I love it.
Josué Cardona (05:35.949)
Yeah, or you could put like Escaflowne suit, right? Or just look at images and you can see the styling, right? But like that, it looks like a suit of armor, but it's like giant. It's like, it's a mech suit powered by the heart of a dragon and it transforms. Okay. It was so, so cool. It was so cool. That was, that was like my first
Rae (05:42.235)
Yeah.
Rae (05:54.118)
That's sick.
Rae (05:58.715)
Yo, the school!
Josué Cardona (06:06.412)
Yeah, it kind of blew my mind. I don't remember when they showed it. There's a show, there's a full series that's dubbed, and there's a movie that condenses it. One of my favorite. Again, just conceptually, everything about it. it's so cool. It's so cool.
Rae (06:14.588)
Hmm.
Rae (06:21.712)
Yeah, that is hitting so many boxes and I'm kind of sad that this is, I'm today years old hearing about this. Like, I feel like I love this.
Josué Cardona (06:30.594)
I'm trying to confirm right now, but I'm almost certain that it premiered on, it says it may have been Fox Kids. I know it was a Saturday morning thing. It was definitely a Saturday morning thing. Yeah, apparently it was Fox Kids, but it was Saturday mornings for sure. And it was so cool for a brief and controversial run in the United States. Yeah, because a lot of it was edited. I'm sure that's the controversy. Yeah, yeah.
Rae (06:37.326)
okay.
Rae (06:44.326)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (06:49.974)
Yeah, that sums up most of the Toonami era, like Saturday morning cartoon era anime. It had to be.
Josué Cardona (06:59.63)
I won't look more into it now. those are like Saturday. Those are the big that I can think of right now. Saturday morning anime that I can think of. But they all feel very different to what Toonami was and what showed up on Toonami and later Adult Swim. Yeah. So, yeah, go ahead.
Rae (07:07.643)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (07:13.702)
Mm-hmm.
Exactly. Yeah, I remember I remember for I was definitely like a WB Kids, like Saturday morning cartoon. Some of those some of those were weird. Do you remember Fighting Foodons OK, that was that was a weird one. And that theme song still rattles around in my brain to this day.
Josué Cardona (07:40.014)
Is that an anime Fighting? Foodons I see, Yeah, no, this looks like anime for sure. Yeah, no, I don't remember ever. Never heard of this one.
Rae (07:42.48)
I think it is. Foo-Dons, it's like Pokemon, but they're Food
Rae (07:50.908)
It's a kind of a niche one from what I understand. Like not many people have heard of it.
Rae (08:00.612)
And Ultimate Muscle was another one, I think.
Josué Cardona (08:04.686)
I remember that, but I didn't think that was an anime.
Rae (08:08.66)
I think it was.
Josué Cardona (08:10.338)
Maybe, maybe. just don't remember it as that. Looking at it now, it looks like an anime. Yeah, it looks like.
Rae (08:17.136)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (08:23.234)
Yes, the name of the series original name is Kini Kuman. yeah, or I'm sure I said that wrong, but yeah, that's a, that's Japanese. Yeah, for sure.
Rae (08:28.23)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Rae (08:37.564)
Yeah, there were those and if there were other ones, I'm kind of blanking on them right now. But those two stick out in my mind as being like, ones that nobody talks about. They're odd.
Josué Cardona (08:52.558)
But then so, you know, so we've introduced a little bit, right? And then, then Toonami comes along, right? So tell me about Toonami.
Rae (08:55.652)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (08:59.931)
Yeah.
Rae (09:04.26)
Yeah, Toonami was so clearly aimed at boys. It was like the after school block.
It had what that that little character Tom the little robot guy voiced by Steve Blum If you're familiar with voice actors like I am Which that's like a wild pull for yeah, it's like he voiced Tom of all things And yeah, it's like a What was like the setting it was like futuristic space like this guy driving through space
Josué Cardona (09:41.433)
So, yeah, so Toonami is like, is this robot, right? It's Tom, who's like the Toonami operations module. I had to look it up because I couldn't remember what Tom's standing for either. And he's hosting a cartoon block and where he seems to be on a spaceship and he has this huge viewing screen and he's just introducing shows and that's it. It was like two hour block.
Rae (09:46.172)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (09:50.214)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (09:53.796)
You impressed me.
Rae (09:59.111)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (10:11.03)
of cartoons in the afternoon with this like cool sci-fi setting in between that eventually, and don't ask me anything about the the Toonami lore because there is lore, right? There's like multiple versions of Tom, there's like attacks on the ship, there's like a different ship, like stuff was happening to poor Tom, right? Over the course of the years that the show was going. So it was cool, but like...
Rae (10:23.036)
There's a lot of more.
Rae (10:28.604)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (10:36.198)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (10:38.444)
Ultimately, it was really just the name of the show, of the block. And Tom was our host, Tom the Robot.
Rae (10:43.036)
Mm-hmm.
Exactly. Tom the Robot. And yeah, he had his whole his whole storyline and plot line going on there. He died at least once and came back and got several like reboot versions and stuff like the the last Tom looks so bizarre because he has visible eyeballs. Like that's what you do to my boy. That's not my boy. Like, uh, but yeah, it was like an ARG.
Josué Cardona (10:55.534)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (11:11.834)
like stuff that they would do that it was like, go to the website and play these games and help Tom out. Yeah, yeah. And it'd be like, enter this keyword, blah, blah, blah. It was like this whole thing. was really cool. was really engaging. Like for programming block, like that's really engaging in a way to like look forward to something to see what's gonna happen there.
Josué Cardona (11:17.143)
it's true. Yeah, yeah. That's true.
Josué Cardona (11:37.807)
So I just had a realization, right? I'm looking at the programming, right? Because all of that, like we're talking about the structure of the show and like everything around it. But we're here to talk about anime, right? And so we've established that it started in 1997. And I looked up how old I was in 1997, what grade I would have been. Because the whole time I'm like, wait a minute, I don't remember Toonami until I was a sophomore in high school, right? And I was like, wait a minute.
Rae (11:40.721)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Rae (12:01.821)
F-F-U-U-U-U-
Josué Cardona (12:05.934)
but that would be 1998, right? So 1997, I'm looking at what shows were there.
Rae (12:08.316)
okay.
Rae (12:12.604)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (12:15.326)
Thunder Cats, Voltron, Johnny Quest, and something called the Cartoon Roulette, which was Space Ghost, Birdman, Galaxy Trio, the Herguloids, and a few other like 1940s Superman cartoons. What?
Rae (12:16.688)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rae (12:35.644)
You can have this weird stuff. I didn't watch it then.
Josué Cardona (12:39.202)
Me neither, I don't remember watching that. So apparently in 1998, it became an anime thing because the shows are Robotech, which is, are you familiar with the show Robotech? So just brief history, there's an anime and manga called Macross and then a company in the States bought the rights to the Macross show.
Rae (12:48.38)
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Rae (12:55.131)
No.
Rae (13:01.82)
Mmm.
Josué Cardona (13:07.768)
three different Macross shows, edited them down, changed the stories and call them Robotech. And so it is a very different show from the original Macross. It's very interesting. But I'm gonna count it as anime. Dragon Ball Z, this is mine, like this is it, right? Sailor Moon, right? And then Super Friends, which...
Rae (13:12.271)
no.
Rae (13:21.98)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (13:35.213)
Yeah, the old DC Comics show about the Justice League from the 70s, interesting. And then Beast Wars Transformers, which I wouldn't consider an anime because it's like a CG show as well. But Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon, obviously, like huge. Huge. mean, that's where I watched Dragon Ball, right? So again, this is according to Wikipedia.
Rae (13:40.708)
Okay.
Rae (13:44.869)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (13:49.702)
Yeah.
Rae (13:57.885)
Absolutely.
Josué Cardona (14:01.518)
If any of this is wrong, I am sorry, but at least this feels right. Sounds familiar, yeah. Okay, interesting. That's 1998. So at this 1998, are in what? You'd be third grade or fourth grade now?
Rae (14:01.712)
Yeah.
Rae (14:05.284)
Yeah, yeah.
Rae (14:11.739)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (14:19.107)
Third grade, I think. Yeah, it would have been about eight or nine.
Josué Cardona (14:23.32)
Was this your introduction to Sailor Moon? Okay. Yeah. It wasn't for me. I don't think. Yeah, it wasn't for me. I used to watch Sailor Moon. There was a channel. They used to give Sailor Moon like at 5 a.m. Like I would wake up to get ready for school and they would always give Sailor Moon. And I always thought the transformations were so cool. But like, this was not my introduction to Sailor Moon. Not that I remember.
Rae (14:25.562)
Yeah, absolutely.
Rae (14:39.484)
Mmm.
Josué Cardona (14:52.862)
it was my introduction to Dragon Ball Z for sure. And they started with Dragon Ball Z in the States.
Rae (14:55.014)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (14:58.586)
Yeah, Dragon Ball came much later.
Josué Cardona (15:01.262)
Yeah. Although it says this is the Funimation dub, which is interesting because there was a different dub before the Funimation one.
Rae (15:08.496)
No.
Yeah, was four. No, Dragon Ball Z wasn't done by 4Kids right?
Josué Cardona (15:16.502)
No, no, no, it was Pioneer. The Pioneer dub. Yeah, they didn't get very far. The four-
Rae (15:18.995)
Mmm. boy.
Mm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rae (15:33.902)
No, not in relation to anime.
Josué Cardona (15:35.21)
Okay. Okay. So then it says 1999.
I don't know why there's such few shows here. I don't know if this is like just stuff that they added for the first time during that time. And it says 1999 Reboot, which I watched a lot of Reboot. Do you watch Reboot? Yeah.
Rae (15:46.929)
Yeah.
Rae (15:51.645)
I've never watched Reboot, but my spouse was into Reboot as a kid for a little bit. yeah, I just look at it. I'm just like, good Lord.
Josué Cardona (16:01.038)
Yeah, so then Powerpuff Girls and Ronin Warriors. So Ronin Warriors is really the only anime here that is added. And then we get to 2000. Oh boy, 2000.
Rae (16:09.052)
Yeah.
Rae (16:16.676)
I was gonna say, I feel like this is where it pops off.
Josué Cardona (16:19.99)
Okay, take a guess. Take a guess at some of the shows that show up in 2000.
Josué Cardona (16:29.858)
I'll hit you with the non-anime ones first, okay? Just to get those out of the way. Superman the Animated Series and Batman the Animated Series.
Rae (16:31.76)
Okay, yeah, that makes it easier. Yeah.
Not again. Get out of here. Okay.
Josué Cardona (16:42.38)
Okay, those, the rest and.
Rae (16:49.806)
Is this when we get Dragon Ball or is that, is this too early? No, too early for Dragon Ball, okay.
Josué Cardona (16:52.514)
No, nope, nope, nope, nope, too early.
Rae (16:59.354)
Tenshi Muiyo.
Josué Cardona (17:00.543)
Five seconds.
Josué Cardona (17:04.91)
All three Tenchi Muyo's hit in 2000. Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi Universe, and Tenchi in Tokyo. Which was so confusing because those of you who were young, they would just show, they would show a TV show, right? And then you'd watch the episode and then if you missed a couple weeks, you didn't know that Tenchi Muyo ended and now they were showing Tenchi Universe, which is a retelling of the same story with the same voice actors.
Rae (17:06.768)
Yeah! Wow.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Rae (17:23.26)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (17:30.896)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (17:34.927)
And then all of a sudden you're very lost because you don't know if it's the same. You think it's the same show and you have no idea how they're currently in this situation, but it's a completely different show. Unrelated. I'm pretty sure Tokyo. I'm pretty sure these three shows are completely independent from each other. There, there is, there are sequel like shows, but I don't think any of the, think all of these three are independent. I might be wrong, but at least two of them have nothing to do with one another. They're just retellings of the same.
Rae (17:42.063)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (17:50.64)
Yeah, I think so.
Josué Cardona (18:05.206)
story and there are a couple more Tenchi Muiyo shows but they had all three appear in 2000. I love Tenchi Muiyo. Tenchi Muiyo to me that is like the example.
Rae (18:15.088)
Same.
Josué Cardona (18:23.094)
I will sometimes say something along the lines of, that's some anime ass shit. Right? And I don't, and if you know, know, Tenchi Muiyo is that, right? It's a harem anime where the kid's an alien with a lightsaber and a cat that turns into a ship. And I love it so much.
Rae (18:29.37)
Yeah, same, same, I say that phrase often.
Rae (18:34.97)
Yeah, Tenchi Muyo is full of that.
Rae (18:48.081)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's so weird.
Josué Cardona (18:51.842)
And then they were like, let's do it again. Let's just retell the story again, just a little differently. Let's put them in Tokyo this time. Let's put them in Tokyo.
Rae (19:01.02)
I love Tenchi so much because that whole thing is just full of weird characters and they are so memorable. Every single one of them. And like, they have stuck with me to this day.
Josué Cardona (19:12.462)
It's so good. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. it's so good. It's so good. I went on a like Tenchi Muiyo.
Rae (19:20.028)
It's so good.
Josué Cardona (19:26.156)
a hard just Tenchi Muyo ride like two years ago and I caught up on everything that I hadn't watched. know, everything that came out in last like 15 years that I just hadn't watched and I rewatched the old shows and it was great. It was so good. There's a lot. There's a lot out there. Yeah. Yeah. that's cool. Okay. another, I don't know if you remember this, blue submarine number six. Do you remember this one?
Rae (19:33.14)
wow.
Rae (19:39.612)
I'm gonna have to do that because...
Really? Okay.
Rae (19:54.248)
that's...
Josué Cardona (19:55.823)
So Blue Submarine number six is here. And then G-Force, G-Force is an old show. Guardians of Space. But perhaps, at least for me, the most important one is Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. And Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, just like Toonami was the first taste of anime for a lot of people, Gundam Wing is America's first Gundam show.
Rae (20:01.884)
Mm.
Rae (20:11.78)
It's Gundam time. huh, yeah.
Rae (20:24.742)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (20:25.846)
In other parts of the world, it's not the most beloved. It's not like their favorites. It's not, and it's definitely not the first because Gundam Wing was not the first, but that's the first one that was in the States. So for a lot of people, and again, like I'm, I run in Gundam circles, you know? And so, you know, I'm just, it's just, it's just something that I do. I know a lot of people who associate with Gundam and it's so funny, like in,
Rae (20:36.827)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (20:41.564)
Not to brag.
Josué Cardona (20:53.454)
on the Western side, right? Like in America in particular, Gundam Wing was it because it was the first time that we had like these giant robots. mean, I talked about Robotech before, but it was different. It was, it was not like, yeah, just robots aura farming like for, so I was just crazy. So good. Yeah. So that was, that was a big deal. Okay. That's 2000. That's 2000. Any, I mean, so I think for both of us, Tenchi, at least for me, for sure, Tenchi was like formative in the sense of like,
Rae (20:58.438)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (21:12.22)
Amazing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (21:23.106)
And I say this all time, like Western media is like kind of boring in comparison. And this is a part of it, right? Where like Tenchi Muyo is just so silly and whimsical, but also badass and cool and like, and weird and funny. It is so funny. So funny. So, so funny. It's like, yeah, it's like, and then.
Rae (21:26.992)
Yeah!
Rae (21:33.838)
Mm-hmm. And funny.
Rae (21:39.374)
It's genuinely like laugh out loud moments of absurdity. It's great.
Josué Cardona (21:48.408)
They're all in love with him and it's just so funny. it's just a joke keeps going and going and going. It's so good. It's so good. He is.
Rae (21:53.277)
And he's just a normal guy. He's just like the most, he doesn't have any powers. He's...
Josué Cardona (21:58.627)
He's the most plain, no, he does have, I mean, he doesn't know he has powers, but he is like, he does have, he does not display his, I don't know why they like him so much. It's not because of his power, he does have stuff, right? Like he is, he does have access to things.
Rae (22:02.58)
okay.
Rae (22:08.476)
Mmm.
Rae (22:19.238)
I must have never seen those episodes because they just never aired.
Josué Cardona (22:22.394)
yeah, no, no, but it usually happens later in the show, like especially in Tenchi Muiyo, it's like the last two or three episodes. It's where it's like he finally does bad-ass stuff. It's like, it's, it's, and he gets his lightsaber and he has access to like his abilities because he is an alien. they're all, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. His father and his grandfather are also aliens and his, they're like hundreds of years old. Right. They've been on earth for a long time. So like his race.
Rae (22:24.975)
That makes sense.
Rae (22:41.286)
Wow.
Rae (22:51.516)
Yeah, they're elves.
Josué Cardona (22:51.95)
They age very slowly. And so, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's cool. Actually, I think his father dresses up like an older man. No, think it's his grandfather. One of them just is always disguised as an older man because he doesn't age really. And so the town doesn't know, doesn't realize it. It's like all these things, but it's a mystery that keeps unraveling, right? As it goes, and then as every episode goes by, a new girl appears that's like, and they're all in love with Tenchi.
Rae (23:07.868)
Rae (23:14.873)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (23:21.68)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (23:22.21)
Right? That's like one of them is like a galactic warlord. One of them is a princess. One of them is like a cop. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a space cop. There's the, the, the, the, the scientist, the crazy Washu is just like, it's so funny. It's so good. Anyway, formative. Tenchi Muiyo, I was like, this is possible. Right? Because like, again, like,
Rae (23:30.46)
Yeah, they're two space cops.
Rae (23:38.939)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (23:45.125)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (23:48.225)
It's, it's like setting, it was a mix of genres, right? That I'd never seen before. Cause like Sailor Moon is one thing, right? It's like, and every episode there's a transformation and there's a monster of the week. then, and then like Dragon Ball Z, good introduction to Shonen, right? It's like, I get it. It's an action show. People are getting powerful. Like Tenchi Muyo is just like completely different. And then, and then Gundam Wing also again, I would say formative just.
Rae (23:51.056)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rae (24:05.329)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (24:12.134)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (24:16.24)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (24:17.762)
link because because all of the Gundam shows are about war. And so really the context like imagine all these shows right are happening at the same time. Like Gundam Wing is really about a secret organization that build these giant robots to to stop wars from happening on Earth. So when when global superpowers get out of hand, all of a sudden, this boy band of five young pilots shows up right with these
Rae (24:21.34)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (24:34.748)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (24:45.098)
incredibly badass overpowered robots to tell everybody to chill the fuck out. Right? And then, and then, but it's all about war, right? Like the Gundam shows, there's always some story about war and child soldiers. And it's like, it's, it's, it's badass, but it's also like the topics are very serious.
Rae (24:47.898)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Rae (25:03.034)
Yeah, the tone is very serious. Yeah, the whiplash.
Josué Cardona (25:05.422)
And then you watch Tenchi Muyo right after, right? But again, a formative year, 2000 for sure, for sure. Okay, 2001. Take some guesses. It's hard. It's hard to, I'm gonna knock the ones that aren't anime out of the way. Batman Beyond, apparently. Zoids actually might be anime, but I'm gonna, I think of it as a toy line, so I'm gonna remove that one.
Rae (25:11.761)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (25:16.997)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (25:26.148)
Yeah, okay, I think I remember that.
Yeah, I remember that.
Josué Cardona (25:36.019)
And that's it. rest, the rest are anime.
Rae (25:39.738)
I remember both of those being in the lineup because I didn't watch them or I watched Zoids a little bit because it was on before stuff I liked
Josué Cardona (25:46.808)
Having Batman Beyond There is weird to me, because to me that was like a WB Saturday morning thing also, but it's possible because this is like darker stuff.
Rae (25:50.638)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (25:56.413)
Maybe, maybe that wasn't. Okay, so yeah, what was on in 2001? feel like that's, 2001 is like when things really amped up in, I'm hoping, can I remember, I remember this more. was DBZ and or Sailor Moon back on the agenda? Dragon, okay, that's when we got Dragon Ball. Gotcha. Okay.
Josué Cardona (26:06.68)
Maybe, maybe.
Josué Cardona (26:18.2)
Dragon Ball, the original Dragon Ball shows up. Which again, also Dragon Ball Z actually starts, is the beginning of, I believe it's, this number might be completely wrong, but it's like number 273 of the manga, right? Because Dragon Ball is, the manga was always Dragon Ball. And then at some point they just,
Rae (26:38.586)
I su-
Rae (26:44.358)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (26:47.214)
switch the name at like a point in the in the manga. So Dragon Ball Z like Dragon Ball existed before Dragon Ball Z in both both contexts, right? But in the US we got Dragon Ball Z first. And then when they introduced Dragon Ball, I was like, Oh, is this a prequel? And it's like, no, no, this show is older than Dragon Ball Z by a lot. Yeah.
Rae (26:56.443)
Yeah.
Rae (27:01.009)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (27:07.077)
Yeah.
Rae (27:10.524)
I don't think I realized that, that it was all one manga series for a long time and eventually they kind of like switched it up.
Josué Cardona (27:19.0)
Yep, I'm gonna look up is issue what?
fact check myself here.
Rae (27:26.756)
Hahaha
Josué Cardona (27:35.15)
it's, so which number is it? It is.
Well, keep guessing while I, oh no, 195 it says. Yeah. Yeah. Is that correct? No.
Rae (27:45.568)
okay.
That's still a lot. I'm trying to.
Josué Cardona (27:57.359)
figure this out. When did it start? I don't know why 273 is a number. don't know. The original manga has 519 chapters, so I'm not crazy there. And then Dragon Ball is 1 to 194, and then Dragon Ball Z starts with 195. Okay, okay, yeah. So my number was off, but you get the idea. And then Dragon Ball Z goes to chapter 519.
Rae (28:14.088)
okay, okay.
Rae (28:19.046)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (28:24.088)
Yep. But it's all one, right? Like it's all one collection. It's like, just one day that you just started, they called it Z, but it was the next chapter. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So, so, so, so what was your understanding of Dragon Ball? I'm curious.
Rae (28:24.931)
Yeah.
Rae (28:33.862)
Yeah. Wild.
Rae (28:40.058)
I thought it was like a prequel series, like it was something separate. No, I didn't realize it was all just like one. That's wild.
Josué Cardona (28:42.008)
Pretty cool, yeah, no.
Josué Cardona (28:46.616)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (28:52.646)
Yeah, so let's see.
Josué Cardona (28:53.612)
Also my favorite because I loved, I love Dragon Ball Z. Like at this point in the right, I'm like, I'm a diehard fan and Dragon Ball comes out. like, what is this? It is so playful. It is so fun. Like the world is really fun, but like a little Goku is just like, it is just, it's just a lot of fun. It's just a lot of fun.
Rae (29:03.132)
Mm-hmm.
Hahaha
Yes.
Rae (29:15.628)
Mm I loved Dragon Ball. Like I liked Dragon Ball Z and and like that that's a very important show to me. But like I when I got into Dragon Ball, I loved it. It was so much more fun. It was less serious. And like I always felt that Dragon Ball Z couldn't figure out what it wanted to be tone wise in that like there were a lot of silly
gags and jokes and stuff like that, but yet all the power scaling and everything. was like, can't, I can't tell where you're going here. But with Dragon Ball, that always felt like, yeah, that's exactly what it should be.
Josué Cardona (29:55.054)
This is... this is why.
Rae (29:57.5)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (29:59.023)
because Dragon Ball the world is very well established and the tone is very well established for 194 chapters. And then they do a little time skip and he's a little older and the threats are a little more serious. And so it becomes a little more action oriented. And if you just think of it as like that, right? And then it doesn't, it might seem kind of jarring.
Rae (30:05.041)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (30:09.06)
Yeah.
Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rae (30:22.597)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (30:26.818)
But if you understand the context of like, this is episode 200, right? Or like, this is the story, the 200th part of this. This is why there's all of these, they introduce new silly stuff, but all of the other silly stuff is still there, right? And so, yeah, it is, it makes sense. It makes sense, yeah. They'll be like, where's all this stuff coming from? Like, why is this talking pig here? It's like,
Rae (30:31.792)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (30:53.186)
He's a huge part of the show before then. Now he's like a side character. So he might seem out of place, but yes. And I just confirmed just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Yeah. The Dragon Ball anime premiered in 1986 and then Dragon Ball Z premiered in 1989. And it didn't come to the States until 1997.
Rae (30:58.054)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (31:06.14)
Ugh.
Rae (31:10.374)
Damn, okay.
Yeah. Wow.
Josué Cardona (31:16.654)
Both shows were done for a while by the time we got them in the States. Okay, I fact-checked everything. So we got Dragon Ball that year. We've got three more Gundam shows because guess what? Gundam Wing was a hit. Yeah, and they showed Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam the 8th MS team and Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket.
Rae (31:18.488)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good God.
Rae (31:27.27)
Yeah, we got Dragon Ball.
Rae (31:33.564)
Turns out people like it.
Rae (31:39.292)
Mmm.
Josué Cardona (31:46.073)
Mobile Suit Gundam is a very serious show about a war, like a war in the future. The tone, it's the original Gundam series and then the tone is very serious. The other two are OVAs, so they're very short. One is 12 episodes, the other one is six episodes. And they are dark. They are like, here's a corner of the war. War in the Pocket in particular is about this little boy on a colony, on a space colony, like a satellite.
Rae (31:48.432)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (31:57.67)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (32:01.02)
Mmm.
Rae (32:09.126)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (32:16.562)
And he fought like so many people die in those six episodes. It is like, it is crazy how, how like they're just very serious, right? And so the fact that they brought all of these gun, right? Like very tonally different in a way from Gundam Wing. These were, yeah. And also all of these were older than Gundam Wing because Mobile Suit Gundam is from 1979. It's older.
Rae (32:24.667)
it
Mm-hmm.
Rae (32:35.419)
Yeah.
Rae (32:40.59)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I've-
Josué Cardona (32:45.4)
than Dragon Ball. The anime is older than Dragon Ball.
Rae (32:46.372)
Yeah. I've watched a little bit of like Mobile Suit, like trying to get into Gundam and it's it's old. Like you can tell from the animation is janky. It does. Story's great.
Josué Cardona (32:55.342)
Yeah, but it holds up though. Like it is, it looks so good and the story is great, but it definitely, it's 1979 for sure. It's so good. Yeah. The other, yes. Also the Big O, I don't know if you remember the Big O.
Rae (33:05.083)
Yeah, yeah.
So that was your year for real.
Yeah, I remember that one. I never watched it, but I remember like the bumpers and like the commercials for it like the intro and stuff.
Josué Cardona (33:18.454)
The big O, honestly, it was Batman with a giant mech. That's it, literally.
Rae (33:23.324)
Everything can be made better with a giant mech. Yeah, that's our slogan now. Everything's better with a mech!
Josué Cardona (33:27.982)
That's what I always say.
Josué Cardona (33:32.358)
He's this rich guy with a butler and then instead of like a Batmobile, he has the big O, which is a giant mech And it was great. It was great.
Rae (33:44.551)
Also, kind of an insane joke to put in a show that ended up being children's programming, which I know it wasn't intended as that. Just the name, the big O, like that's a perverted joke.
Josué Cardona (33:55.471)
I don't think it meant people used it that way in 2001, I'll tell you that. Man, you're so hentai.
Rae (34:01.446)
Fair enough.
Yes, this is stop!
Josué Cardona (34:09.79)
means perverted in Japanese. Outlaw Star. Remember Outlaw Star?
Rae (34:14.412)
Mm-hmm. I do not. I never watched that before I watched the stream for this.
Josué Cardona (34:21.142)
Outlaw Star was like a space opera and it was my first lesson. Okay. I always remember Outlaw Star. It was my first lesson in that anime episode, anime series, the probability of the last two episodes going bat shit, completely left field, completely different, explaining something that they never explained before and completely changing the context of it. There's like a
Rae (34:24.166)
Yeah.
Rae (34:27.973)
Mmm.
Josué Cardona (34:51.342)
60 % chance that that's going to happen. And I learned that with Outlaw Star where the last two episodes, it was insane, but I loved it, right? Like I loved it. I wasn't mad. Okay. It's like.
Rae (34:52.4)
no. no.
Rae (34:59.228)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (35:05.11)
what is happening, what is happening. OutlawStar taught me that lesson. Thank you, OutlawStar.
Rae (35:06.372)
Hahaha
Rae (35:10.972)
Yeah, like I just watched my first episode of Outlaw Star for this, and that pretty much encompasses how I felt the entire time going, what is this? And like, it's fun. It's got a lot of energy to it and like it's really dynamic. And I'm really curious about it. I also happen to watch this might just be this might just be my luck that I found like the one.
Josué Cardona (35:23.63)
in general.
Josué Cardona (35:30.562)
Yeah.
Rae (35:38.6)
weird episode about cross dressing. And there's usually like one weird transphobic episode with any show before like 2010. I don't I wouldn't say this one was, but I'm like, was this was this the one was this the one that I found here? Of course it would be. It was for like a Fighting competition.
Josué Cardona (35:41.87)
Hmm.
Josué Cardona (36:01.502)
I don't remember what Outlaw Store was about. I only remember the ending being so like like whiplash inducing. That's what I remember. was yeah no. The other one was cardcaptors. To be clear, not Cardcaptor Sakura.
Rae (36:08.092)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (36:13.84)
yes!
Yeah, they tried to make it into a boy show.
Josué Cardona (36:20.414)
Yes, this is the bastardized version.
Rae (36:22.704)
Yeah, which unironically loved it as a kid. I had the tarot deck and everything, like I loved it.
Josué Cardona (36:26.552)
Yes. Okay.
Josué Cardona (36:31.884)
Now it's getting interesting. 2002, do this a little more. There's way less anime. The only anime, there's two anime only. Hemtaro? You ever watch Hemtaro? Yeah, you familiar?
Rae (36:33.424)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (36:45.932)
So my Hamtaro I have feelings about because at some point they replaced Sailor Moon with Hamtaro and made no transition about it. It literally was on Tuesday. It was Sailor Moon. I remember the episode in the arc and everything. I think it was it was something in the fourth season, which I don't remember which letter that is R Super S or something like that. It might be R.
Josué Cardona (37:04.642)
Yeah.
Rae (37:16.476)
But it's not that it's this dead moon circus arc. I remember it was called and then like literally the next day it was Hamtaro and That was it Yeah
Josué Cardona (37:26.764)
Yeah, yeah.
The only other anime, again, I'm not counting Zoids because to me, don't, I guess it's a, it's got mechs, I should have been, no, it's an anime. So Zoids, chaotic century, but then Mobile Fighter G Gundam, which I learned another lesson.
Rae (37:34.063)
Yeah.
Rae (37:40.411)
Yeah.
Rae (37:44.796)
Mmm
Josué Cardona (37:50.434)
which was that...
Josué Cardona (37:56.771)
you could have a show in the same universe, the same IP, the same franchise that was completely different. Like Gundam Wing and Mobile Suit Gundam was like, okay. But then Mobile Fighter G Gundam is literally like a tournament arc show with crazy fun robots where like literally one Gundam is a horse and its pilot is a horse.
Rae (38:03.27)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (38:17.934)
I think I've seen some of those.
Josué Cardona (38:27.778)
I think the American one is like a cowboy or a boxer or something. It's a, it's, yeah, that sounds, I'd believe anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a lot. Yeah.
Rae (38:30.044)
Yeah, I think I saw, I think I saw one that was like a cactus or something. That sounds right. I could be thinking of Digimon, honestly, like, because they have the cactus Digimon too. So I kind of want to check that one out because it sounds absurd.
Josué Cardona (38:46.094)
It's a lot of fun, but it's a very different genre, completely different genre. Actually, when you told me to check out one of these channels that were doing that, the first one that I watched had G Gundam. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was, it's crazy.
Rae (38:49.51)
Yeah.
Rae (38:58.0)
Did it. That's fun. Yeah.
Josué Cardona (39:06.08)
special attack of the like the lead Gundam is called the Shining Finger. It's great. Back then didn't know it's different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rae (39:10.172)
Things that probably didn't faze like us as like children now. Now we're like hee hee. Hee hee hoo hoo.
Josué Cardona (39:19.928)
So again, I'm going through Wikipedia. I do think that there were other shows like they were showing. These were just new and introduced that year. Next year, formative for me for sure. Cyborg 009, do you remember Cyborg 009?
Rae (39:27.001)
Yeah.
Rae (39:35.452)
Yes, I liked that one. I like that one.
Josué Cardona (39:38.351)
It was also like, I mean, was it Tetsuya? mean, Osamu Tetsuka? The style was like of Osamu Tetsuka, which is the, I guess it's not one of his, but the style, it's like the Astro Boy, like animation style, like the art style. Anyway, Cyber009, really cool. .hack//Sign, do you remember .hack//Sign?
Rae (39:53.308)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I remember it, I never watched it, but I remember seeing it.
Josué Cardona (40:05.206)
It was like, it was cool. It was cool. Like very video game connected. And then three pretty big ones, I guess. Four, this is again, this had super defender Gundam Force, which is like a CG Gundam series where all of them were chibi robots. Like where the actual robots were the actual character. They weren't like piloted.
Rae (40:10.972)
Mmm.
Rae (40:24.761)
What?
Rae (40:30.948)
Josué Cardona (40:31.374)
So the characters are actually, and then it says super defense, but SD also stands for super deformed, which is like chibi characters with giant heads. And so the characters were robots like Gundams, were like people, right? They're like a type of creature. And I was like, what? Like, how is this even possible? Dragon Ball GT, right? Which was like, wow, okay. We got, it keeps going. That's cool. And...
Rae (40:46.372)
Wow.
Rae (40:52.412)
There it is.
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (41:00.652)
I think the two biggest ones for me are Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin for sure. These are our introductions to these things.
Rae (41:03.502)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Rae (41:10.06)
Mm-hmm. Loved Yu Yu Hakusho
Josué Cardona (41:13.102)
Yu Yu Hakusho is very good. You like Shonen, so it makes sense. Yeah, Ruroni Kenshin formative for me for sure. 2004, let's see. The bigger ones here, this is great. So they had a Astro Boy series, not the original one. Because there's multiple shows. So this one came out in 2004.
Rae (41:16.038)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, this should not shock anyone truly.
Rae (41:26.097)
Yeah.
Rae (41:39.761)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (41:42.586)
and the only other one that I would say is a big deal with Gundam seed, which was like the newest Gundam show at the time. I'd say that was the first time where the States got like the newest Gundam.
There's a few other things here, let's see. 2005, Zatch Bell. Do you remember Zatch Bell?
Rae (42:04.537)
[negative grunt]
Josué Cardona (42:06.642)
Yu-Gi-Oh was on there, but I feel like it was already on WB thing. Yeah.
Rae (42:09.75)
yeah. That was WB one before. Yeah, I was very into Yu-Gi-Oh! But like back in the day.
Josué Cardona (42:15.724)
Yeah. And then I would say two shows here that are kind of a big deal. One of them you don't like, it's called Naruto.
Rae (42:22.47)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (42:27.74)
See, I was well out of the out of the Toonami game by this point by like. By 2004, I think. Life that I got into junior high about that point.
Josué Cardona (42:31.224)
By 2005? Really?
Why?
Josué Cardona (42:43.182)
Okay. And then.
Rae (42:44.336)
And then it was weird for a girl to be into anime.
Josué Cardona (42:47.736)
Got it. And then the only other thing, no big deal, one piece.
Rae (42:50.876)
Naturally.
Josué Cardona (42:53.774)
I didn't even know they showed it on Toonami. At this point, I also had life things. 2005, I graduated college.
Rae (42:55.928)
And I must... Yeah.
Rae (43:02.236)
You graduated college? Eww. No.
Josué Cardona (43:05.688)
Yeah, yeah. Just meant I had more time to watch shows but uh, you know. And then after that, it gets kind of weird. And we're already discounted. I mean, we talked about our format of years for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rae (43:10.395)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Rae (43:17.509)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (43:22.406)
That must have been the FUNimation dub.
Josué Cardona (43:26.338)
I never watched One Piece or Naruto on Toonami. Again, by that point, I was trying to wrap up college and leave home and do all that stuff. But I was watching, At this point, I was more buying anime, right? And going to the video store and buying stuff. Yeah. And then it's kept going.
Rae (43:30.171)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (43:35.228)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (43:40.636)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (43:46.141)
Yeah, if 2004, if 2004 or 2005 or whatever was when like Naruto came out on Toonami that might have been might have been how my friend was watching it at the time and then she had gotten DVDs or something. It's the pieces are starting to connect.
Josué Cardona (44:02.946)
Yeah, yeah. And the one weird thing here is where's Cowboy Bebop? Where is Inuyasha? So I guess those were adult swim shows. Adult swim, I think Inuyasha was definitely an adult swim show. I could have sworn Cowboy Bebop was a daytime thing.
Rae (44:13.839)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Rae (44:25.02)
Maybe?
Rae (44:28.731)
Maybe.
Josué Cardona (44:33.198)
Yeah, I don't know. Weird. I don't know if I trust all this. Yeah, well, it's showing up. I could have sworn I was introduced to Cowboy Bebop on Toonami, but that was a long-ass time ago. So it's possible that, but those were other shows that I remember from that era. Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Trigun.
Rae (44:34.288)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (44:47.491)
Yeah, yeah.
Rae (44:52.742)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (44:58.172)
Mmm.
Josué Cardona (45:01.647)
and and Inuyasha. think those were big deals for me.
Rae (45:04.816)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I dabbled in some of those, but not a lot of them. And now I host an, yeah, honestly, like of all the people I know who like anime, I'm probably the least qualified and yet here I am.
Josué Cardona (45:13.742)
And now you host an anime podcast.
Josué Cardona (45:22.68)
You lied on your application.
Rae (45:24.381)
Apparently, because there was an application.
Josué Cardona (45:26.52)
That's not true. You did say you only know one anime.
Rae (45:30.81)
Which is also not true, I know more than one.
Josué Cardona (45:36.11)
You were like, I know One Piece and that's it. That's all I watch. That's all I ever, that's all I read. That's all I watch.
Rae (45:38.234)
I know One Piece very well.
Yeah, but that's... Yeah, no thoughts, head empty, only one piece, it's true. man, guess we... Do we have to reset the counter for that? Well, I think that was you who brought it up. That's fair.
Josué Cardona (45:48.8)
Only one piece, yeah.
Josué Cardona (45:53.494)
I was baiting you.
I tried baiting you and I did it. Reset the counter. Yeah. So, so, so, so how do you feel going through kind of that, that list?
Rae (46:00.347)
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're back in zero episodes.
Rae (46:09.884)
I mean, yeah, it's it's helpful to kind of look through it and go like, yeah, I do remember this and like contextualize also like the time and the place and like where I was in life. Because like like you're even saying you remember Cowboy Bebop being on Toonami and you're not seeing it in this list, not saying it's an exhaust exhaustive list, but it's kind of helpful to just like anchor it back into our memories. At least it is for me. So what?
shows did you end up watching on the YouTube streams? Like when you watch this, like a
Josué Cardona (46:43.658)
I was just checking and yeah, Adult Swim is where Cowboy Bebop came out in 2001. Yeah. Yeah. It also makes sense that like these were considered more adult shows. The first episode of Cowboy Bebop is like a drug trafficker who gets high on his own supply and murders a whole bunch of people. And like, I think that's considered adult, more adult than Hamtaro.
Rae (46:47.194)
Hmm. that makes sense. Okay, would have been around the same time.
Rae (46:55.206)
Mm.
Rae (47:12.7)
Yeah, yeah, I don't think they could edit that one down to fit the FCC guidelines.
Josué Cardona (47:13.166)
And sailor moon Yeah, the pregnant woman who yeah, I don't remember if you watch the first episode or
Rae (47:24.816)
I have seen the first episode, none of this sounds familiar to me, but that might just be me.
Josué Cardona (47:31.074)
Okay.
Rae (47:31.74)
It's been a minute. It's been a minute since I tried to be fair.
Josué Cardona (47:36.384)
True story. I met someone today who also told me that they found Cowboy Bebop boring.
Rae (47:40.345)
There's dozens of us!
Josué Cardona (47:42.639)
But then he told me he was really into Rent a Girlfriend. And I was like, well, I think there's a type of show that you like and a type of show that you don't like. And that's okay. I'm not surprised that you don't like Cowboy Bebop And Rent a Girlfriend is more your speed. That's all. That's all.
Rae (47:49.276)
could be.
Yeah.
Rae (48:00.957)
Fair. Yeah, that's fair. I'm going to just ignore the second part of that and just celebrate that there's multiple, there's dozens of us.
Josué Cardona (48:10.414)
Well, kinda, now looking back, I feel like I hijacked the conversation. I don't know where else you wanted to go with this. I kind of went through that list to like revisit all of the shows. Oh, and you asked me like what I'd watched. What was on that? It was G Gundam and Tenshi Muiyo. It was a Tenshi Muiyo episode. I forgot which Tenshi Muiyo. I think it was Tenshi Universe that was playing. Yeah. And then...
Rae (48:19.184)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (48:25.83)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (48:30.437)
Yeah!
Rae (48:36.443)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (48:39.8)
think that's it, I didn't watch a lot. brought me back. also.
Rae (48:41.563)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (48:49.912)
To me, Toonami was also... Toonami, I recorded it every day. I recorded on video, right? So I wasn't rushing to come home. I mean, wanted to come home and watch the latest episodes, but every day I set it up on these things called VHS tapes.
Rae (48:57.488)
Yeah, yeah.
Rae (49:05.276)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:09.038)
Yep, that's what we did too. Like we would record them all the time.
Josué Cardona (49:11.606)
And I, yep, I would set it up. Eventually I was, I set up a DVD recorder, but you know, for years it was just, it was every day had to record a Toonami block and, yeah, like I could not miss an episode. Like there was, and it's funny, the Hamtaro thing you said, like that used to happen with just the shows in general. Like they would, they would stop or they would just stop and restart it.
Rae (49:16.432)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:21.744)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:30.096)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:34.616)
one day swap them out. Yeah. Yeah.
Josué Cardona (49:39.779)
Like you didn't know that it was a season finale or whatever. It was just like, have the rights up to episode 24. It's a cliffhanger or whatever or not. It doesn't matter. then, then like Dragon Ball, they would just restart over again. Cause there was nothing better than like, I'm sure nothing got them more views than more views, right? There was a number right there. The highest ratings were for Dragon Ball, I'm sure. So they just like restarted.
Rae (49:46.608)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:50.012)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (49:53.777)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (50:03.962)
Ratings.
Josué Cardona (50:09.378)
the last arc, just do that over and over again. And they would start advertising, new episodes coming in July. You're like, it's March, what?
Rae (50:11.676)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Josué Cardona (50:19.522)
why didn't you tell me or tenchi muyo that one would end and they just start with the next one you're like wait what is happening it didn't start like this last time
Rae (50:20.518)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (50:24.847)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (50:28.566)
Exactly. I didn't even realize that there was a retelling of the same story. That's crazy.
Josué Cardona (50:33.134)
Yes, yes, yes, so Tenchi yes, so the show keeps getting retold. Yeah, that's why they're meeting each other again for the first time and the context is always a little different and they end up differently. And he ends up with like, the romances are slightly different in each one. Yeah, there were a few shows that did that. There was a show called Slayers that used to do that. When I was like, what's Try? And they're like, it's a retelling. I'm like, what?
Rae (50:38.556)
Huh.
Rae (50:47.484)
Hmm.
Rae (50:53.436)
Huh.
Rae (50:57.017)
okay.
Josué Cardona (51:02.166)
And not like Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood. Not like that. Literally like, I guess the manga just started over. The manga artist was just like, let's tell the story again.
Rae (51:05.201)
Yeah.
Rae (51:12.764)
Let's just do it again. Why not? That's funny.
Josué Cardona (51:16.482)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, it's a lot of fun, right?
Rae (51:20.54)
I think I'm going to have to dig into Tenchi again because I really loved it and that was one of the shows that I got to watch for this. That was Tenchi in Tokyo, the one that I watched. I also saw Gundam Wing and Outlaw Star and then the Tenchi and I was like...
I love I love Tenchi so much and I got to show my spouse this for the first time and it was amazing how much I remembered about it and like a lot of the names of them. They're all useless. Like all the women, they're so pathetic. I love them. Like the episode I saw was like, my God, what's her name? Sasami. I was I'm like mixing up sashimi in her in my brain. I'm like, it's not it. It's not it. Don't say sashimi. It's the same. She's like sick.
And Tenshi's in Tokyo, Tenshi's dad's just like, I need to get away from these crazy women for a little bit. And just leaves and goes to the city and has they have their plot line going on there. The B plot is all the women are just like laying around because they're useless and they can't cook. And they're like, I'm starving. It's like, what's wrong with all of it? You're a space pirate. You're a princess. I can kind of understand. But like
You're all more competent than this and yet you're all useless and just like Fighting and also just like laying there crying in your own tears. It's hilarious. And like Ryoko and Aika and their like rivalry is so Zoro and Sanji to me. And I'm like, this explains a lot about me and why I like this now.
Josué Cardona (53:08.206)
100%, 100%.
Josué Cardona (53:14.094)
Yep, yep, yep. That's a good comparison. Yeah. Yeah no, it's great. I suggest you watch the original. So according to my quick Googling, the original OVA is only 12 episodes long from 1992. is it 12? Does it say 12 episodes? No, I'm not sure if it's 12 episodes now. But the OVA is the original one and it is, yeah, it's great.
Rae (53:17.701)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (53:22.844)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (53:42.318)
And then they did a 26 episode series and yeah, they're all retellings.
Rae (53:46.256)
That is wild. I did not realize that.
Josué Cardona (53:47.801)
Yeah, yeah. The last one is called I Tenshi Muyo and it has 55 episodes, but they're like three to five minute episodes. It's really strange. Yeah. But all, yeah.
Rae (53:59.545)
Hm.
Rae (54:09.562)
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, that was my first episode of Gundam Wing that I got to watch with this. And that was that was interesting. That was interesting. The voice acting, I could tell that it was really early on in like the English dubbing experience because it was really flat. Like they're having these conversations and there's no emotion put into them. And
Josué Cardona (54:10.094)
We'll a lot.
Josué Cardona (54:28.56)
yeah.
Rae (54:39.652)
There was
think it's the one guy's name Katra. Like, was I crazy like hearing that? Like, like I was like, this is a weird She-Ra reboot. OK.
Josué Cardona (54:45.582)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Josué Cardona (54:51.246)
It's spelled like Katra, like a Q-U, it's supposed to be like French, but yeah, it's pronounced like Katra, but it's Q-A, Q-U-A-T-R-E, I think? Like four? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rae (55:03.054)
OK. OK, then didn't know that. But yeah, like it was so, so tonally serious and. Very, very. Yeah. Yeah. And just saying how much they're going to kill the other guy like a lot, they said that like three times and yeah, it's like, I'm going to kill you every time they have a conversation Well, I'm just going to kill you. It's like, just do it already. Like I could tell it was really early.
Josué Cardona (55:12.012)
Melodramatic, very. Yeah, yeah. And aura farming, right? It's like a lot of posing and yeah, yeah, yeah.
They gotta kill him. Yeah.
Rae (55:31.588)
in the dubbing experience. I didn't remember how kind of rough some of that was.
Josué Cardona (55:33.516)
Yeah. Yeah.
Josué Cardona (55:39.855)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think about that back then. Now I do. Now I watch some shows and I'm like, this dub is unwatchable almost. Like it's hard to watch. But back then, I think just kids programming in general had bad, a lot of like poor dubs.
Rae (55:47.162)
Yeah.
Rae (55:53.285)
Yeah.
Rae (56:06.34)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (56:06.434)
Like, I mean, even just American shows, right? Like it was all so cartoony. And I think that was a part of it. And maybe, yeah. But some of it is just like not good acting. I'm watching one Gundam show now called Gundam Age and the English dub from what I could find. It's like, it was like a company that had never done dubs before. So they kind of just sort of just had like friends and random, you know, employees of the company do voices. And that should make it.
Rae (56:15.75)
Yeah.
Rae (56:28.924)
You
Josué Cardona (56:35.598)
more endearing, it's not, it is not, I, it's hard.
Rae (56:38.862)
Yeah, that's just a fan dub that is a little more official somehow.
Josué Cardona (56:44.706)
Yeah, it is not. Yeah, that's what know. That's what it sounds like. But it's not good.
Rae (56:48.271)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. None of that registered to me as a kid. It was just like, this is new and exciting. like, yeah, maybe the bar was just already low, maybe because it was like the late 90s, early 2000s. Maybe it was because I was a kid and I didn't care. Maybe we just didn't know any better yet, because now we definitely have really high quality dubs, really high quality animation. Like it's I mean, you just look at like the early arcs of One Piece and then like the most recent ones and they are night and day like so, so different.
Josué Cardona (57:18.2)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (57:20.336)
in terms of animation and just art.
Josué Cardona (57:23.062)
I guess that's really a thing, Like looking back at that, like it was such a different way to consume these shows. I'm sure in the Japanese original dubs are good. And so it's a very different experience, right? Like if you grew up in Japan and you're watching the original dubs, it's like high quality, we're like, we're seeing this stuff for the first time with these terrible dubs and still eating it up for the most part.
Rae (57:47.004)
Mm.
Rae (57:50.8)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (57:52.397)
Also a different way to watch TV, right? It was like, had to be at a certain time. These are the blocks your show might end with without warning.
Rae (57:57.401)
Mm-hmm. There was no streaming.
Rae (58:03.318)
Mm-hmm. No notice, it just disappears forever.
Josué Cardona (58:08.32)
limited internet interaction, like knowing about the show. Yeah, wild, wild, thank you.
Rae (58:10.758)
God, yeah.
Rae (58:15.492)
Mm-hmm. In some ways I miss it, in some ways I miss it, in some ways I don't.
Josué Cardona (58:22.094)
Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Josué Cardona (58:31.16)
Well, that's all I got. What else did you want to cover?
Rae (58:33.66)
No, think, I mean, I think that's about it. Like, we've been yapping about this for an hour. It's cool to kind of look back and appreciate our roots, but, and appreciate where we're at now and how far we've come since. And, you know, I appreciate the fact that all this stuff did not fall into a void. Like it felt like in 2000, whatever, when these things just kind of went off the air and then you didn't know what they were. You didn't know how to look them up. Like you just, there was nothing. There's nothing after a while.
Josué Cardona (58:36.6)
Okay.
Josué Cardona (58:42.414)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (58:45.827)
Yeah.
Rae (59:03.204)
So I appreciate that we still have them.
Josué Cardona (59:06.638)
I'm telling you how my mind was blown when I went to a video store in the middle of Dragon Ball Z and saw that they had all of Dragon Ball Z and GT and Dragon Ball dubbed in Spanish right there for me to watch. I felt so betrayed. I was like, nobody told me, nobody told me this. Nobody, what?
Rae (59:16.678)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (59:22.844)
Wild.
Rae (59:27.589)
Yeah!
Rae (59:32.4)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (59:36.982)
I just believed that this show was coming out every couple months with like 10 new episodes and that was it. That I had to buy a DVD with three episodes on it or a tape with three episodes on it. Remember that? Remember that?
Rae (59:48.521)
I mean, I never I was 10. Like I didn't have money to do this.
Josué Cardona (59:54.626)
you'd spend $20 to buy three episodes.
Rae (59:59.101)
Hate that. That sucks. And we did it! We did it! Because we had no- there was nothing. There was- we couldn't find it otherwise.
Josué Cardona (01:00:07.534)
Then when DVDs came out, I was like, yes, finally, we got six episodes on a thing. I only have to buy eight DVDs to get the whole show.
Rae (01:00:13.784)
my God.
Rae (01:00:19.548)
God. My my my mentor and and former supervisor was around your age and like was into the anime scene at the same time like you were buying stuff and they were they were describing to me how they used to like send someone in California money who like had these really high quality like replications.
on the tapes and you could like pick what episodes you wanted and they would like mail them to you and stuff like that. like this was like that's wild.
Josué Cardona (01:00:57.272)
You know what's the craziest part is you would find out about stuff like that because someone put an ad in a magazine.
Rae (01:01:04.796)
Yeah, yeah, it was so offline, it's wild. And it's like, you just mailed someone $20 in the, like actually in the mail or something like that. Like it's crazy.
Josué Cardona (01:01:13.762)
Yeah, magazines used to have like forms and then you'd cut out the form, you'd fill it out, you'd put it in an envelope, take it to the post office, and then eventually something would show up in the mail.
Rae (01:01:25.244)
That's crazy.
Josué Cardona (01:01:27.148)
Yeah. Yeah.
Rae (01:01:28.636)
It was a very different time, a very different world.
Josué Cardona (01:01:31.534)
very different time.
Rae (01:01:33.691)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:01:37.916)
I think we're old.
Josué Cardona (01:01:40.11)
You're old.
Rae (01:01:40.816)
that you're older than me.
Well, on that bombshell, what are we doing next week?
Josué Cardona (01:01:51.648)
I think we should watch something old.
Rae (01:01:55.481)
Okay.
Josué Cardona (01:01:57.849)
Well, this idea of like some of this stuff being formative, right? I think you've already had a taste of Gundam. I think we should do it. I think we need to get Gundam out of my system. I think we should revisit Gundam for a number of reasons. One is like, I know we kind of touched on this idea of like how we used to do things back then, right? And like how influential it's been to us now, but like...
Rae (01:02:05.116)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:02:09.532)
That's never gonna happen.
Rae (01:02:15.068)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:02:21.83)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (01:02:26.798)
Mutsugando came out in 1979, right? This is like the year that Star Wars came out. it is as big of a deal, around the time that Star Wars came out. And it is...
Rae (01:02:29.084)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:02:32.764)
and bye.
Josué Cardona (01:02:41.614)
It is a huge deal globally. Star Wars came out in 1977, Gundam came out in 1979, it continues to be very popular. There are multiple versions of it, there are multiple timelines, there are different stories. Some might say some are retellings in a way, not to the degree that Tenchi Muyo was.
Rae (01:02:45.947)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:02:58.14)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:03:10.192)
Yeah.
Josué Cardona (01:03:10.36)
but it is a cultural phenomenon to the point where there are giant Gundams in Japan, right? That light up and move and it is a big deal and it has sparked a whole bunch of things. But really, has been so influential. you could say this about a lot of franchises, Star Wars being one of them, where it transcends generation and it transcends genre and medium.
Rae (01:03:15.617)
which is so cool.
Rae (01:03:34.15)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (01:03:41.731)
I think Gundam is a very particular, like in the anime space, it's very, it's kind of unique and it was groundbreaking and trend setting in multiple ways, right? Where like it created some like industries pretty much on its own, but it's also a show about a very real life topic and it all explores.
Rae (01:03:47.676)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:03:55.344)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:04:00.999)
Mm-hmm.
Josué Cardona (01:04:10.722)
war and conflict and the way that we as humans deal with that. you know, we're in the middle of a couple of wars right now. And there's a lot about the show that I think is relevant. So I will give you a list of things to check out. You tell me how much time you think you can invest in it. And I'll give you a couple of things to look at so that you can see.
Rae (01:04:12.028)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:04:16.412)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:04:34.044)
Yeah
Josué Cardona (01:04:40.19)
get a taste of what it is and then I can go into more detail. That's my suggestion.
Rae (01:04:41.116)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:04:47.76)
Are we doing just like the main Mobile Suit Gundam or are you giving me a sampler platter of multiple Gundam shows within the...
Josué Cardona (01:04:57.806)
I saw an article recently, but it's also outdated. That said that there were 85 total anime and movies set in the anime universe. I will give you samples. I will recommend three things in particular. And then from there, that's all we'll need. That's all we'll need, yeah. The first show and the latest show is basically what I want you to see and see how they connect and how they're kind of different.
Rae (01:05:04.29)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
You
Rae (01:05:15.067)
Okay, cool.
Rae (01:05:21.552)
Mm.
Josué Cardona (01:05:26.19)
Oh yeah, actually that's exactly what I you to... As a preview, right? Mobile Suit Gundam, the original show from 1979, the first couple episodes, however many you can stomach, Watch at least three and then watch Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux which is... And then just watch the first three episodes of that and you'll see how much things have changed and how much things have not changed.
Rae (01:05:30.278)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:05:38.166)
Mm. Mm.
Rae (01:05:49.382)
Mm-hmm.
Rae (01:05:54.444)
Mm-hmm. All right. Hell yeah, I'm excited.
Josué Cardona (01:05:56.332)
and I'll fill in the blanks.
Cool. All right, well then that's it for this episode of Otaku Ryoho. For more of the show, visit otaku.geektherapy.org. And for more podcasts on the network, check out network.geektherapy.org or visit geektherapy.org for more about geek therapy and what we've got going on there. Thank you for listening. Remember to geek out and do good and we'll be back next week or in a couple of weeks, two weeks.
We'll be back.
Rae (01:06:29.469)
...an amount of time.
Josué Cardona (01:06:32.824)
We'll be back, period.
Rae (01:06:34.447)
Yeah, pretty much. right, toodles.