Podcast – 17th April 2020 (w/ Dr. Jonathan Clements)

“Why is that giant robot skipping?”

Dr. Jonathan Clements returns to bring some fascinating insight on a number of topics that also gives him a chance to discuss reindeer herders and his love of Gunbuster!

We conclude the week with Jeremy and Andy welcoming Dr. Jonathan Clements back to the show to provide a (what we guess is now a periodic) update on life in lockdown in Finland! (Following on the Jonathan’s previous appearance on the show,) this leads onto some unique Finnish historic insight into the reindeer herders and what a political minefield that is.

We then get onto some anime related chatter beginning with some follow-up chatter on Gunbuster, following it being mentioned by Jonathan during his last appearance, and more specifically the theatrical condensed version of it, and then why Jonathan isn’t a fan the follow-up, Diebuster.

Then, after it was first mentioned on the our Escaflowne special last week, we get some fascinating insight into who is(n’t) Hajime Yatate. We talk about how this pseudonym first came about, why this came about and is still a factor in the anime world today, especially when nowadays credit for work is something very much encouraged in society.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also delve into the subject of titles that were far more popular outside of Japan, but also the subject of how a title is perceived or presented both inside and outside Japan; how important is foreign money to a title and how did that notion come about?

A fun and incredibly insightful 75 minutes to end the week!

If you want simply add to the pool of questions already submitted for when we dive into them, you can do so via Twitter/Facebook/Instagram and be sure to including the tag #AskAllTheAnime so we know it’s a comment directed for the podcast and we’ll be reading any feedback/comments receive on our next podcast.

APPROX TIME CODES FOR THIS EPISODE –

00:00 – 02:34, Intro.
02:35 – 07:53, An update on life in Finland during lockdown, the politics of reindeer herders
07:54 – 19:31, Jonathan on the re-recording of Gunbuster, then discussion about Diebuster too.
19:32 – 31:25, Who is (or isn’t) Hajime Yatate? A look at how this pseudonym came about and it’s impact on the industry to this day.
31:26 – 41:48, (continued from the section above) Have there been any more examples of blow back by a creative because they lost a credit to a studio?
41:49 – 56:15, Discussion on titles being more popular outside of Japan but also how a title may be presented to be perceived larger than it is.
56:16 – 1:02:53, (Continued from section above) The crucial missing component in the foreign attention patter: China.
1:02:54 – 1:11:48, The Chinese animation industry as it is now.
1:11:49 – 1:15:13 [END], Show close.

SHOW NOTES / REFERENCES –

• Buy A Brief History Of Japan by Jonathan Clements (on paperback, Kindle, Audiobook) HERE
• Buy A Brief History of China by Jonathan Clements (on paperback, Kindle, Audiobook) HERE
• You can read the news item about the possible legal action surround the Cooking Mama game that Jonathan mentioned at around 36:00 HERE
• Review of the book “Chinese Animation” written by Rolf Giesen at our blog, mentioned at around 1:04:30 of the podcast, HERE

NOTE: As always please note this podcast may contain strong language and any views expressed by individuals in this podcast do not reflect those of Anime Limited.

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Have a nice weekend everyone and we’ll speak to you on Monday!

Signing out~!

Jeremy