Season One

Episode 1 - Perils of Podcasting
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, and Jason Brown
In this episode, we start with a little bit of who we are and what we're about. Our reviews for this episodes are the 1992 OAV Otaku no Video
and the 1989 OAV Riding Bean. In between teh reviews, we have a round table discussion concerning modern fansubbing.

Episode 2 - Electric Boogaloo
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Episode 2 welcomes an additional host to Akihabara Renditions, Richard Hoelsher! Our episode opens with Richard describing his history as an
anime fan and his general interest resideing mainly with the mecha genre. We review two films, one with widespread Japanese appeal and
the other that is slightly more obscure and more popular with the older Japanese fanbase. And both relatively unheard of or remembered in North
America: Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and Waga Seishun no Arcadia or Arcadia of My Youth (1982).
We break up these great reviews, because they cannot stand side-by-side otherwise their greatness would cause the entire Earth to be
enveloped by a black hole of something scientists refer to as "Awesome", we discuss the dying need for anime clubs.

Episode 3 - AWA Re-Cap
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
The gang is back and still fairly exhausted from Anime Weekend Atlanta the week before hand. Drew runs down the events, and Richard joins him
in bitching about rude cosplayers and other sorts of shenanigans. Marc and Jason bitch about the hotel enforcing their alcohol policies, all thanks
to some underage kids over the past few years, revealing Marc, Jason, and Drew's love of alcohol. Richard likes it, too; just not as much as the rest
of us. All in all, a mixed review for AWA 13 compared with years past but no real screaming about how the end times are near.

Episode 4 - Hard Work, Guts, and Sunglasses
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Our most extreme podcast yet! This week we return to reviews and talk about another title from the early GAINAX days (AKA when GAINAX was good),a little six-episode OAV called Top 'o nerae! GunBuster (1988). But, before we get to all of the awesome that is GunBuster, Marc decided
to shoujo it up for us and we review Boku no Chikyuu 'o mamotte (1992), otherwise known as the piece of trash Please Save My Earth.
Usually in bad anime, there's a shining light that can be good for riffing or MST3K'ing. Boku no Chikyuu has none of that, so please enjoy as we tear into it then spooge over GunBuster.

Episode 5 - Jason Wants to Hit Me With Cookies
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Our All-Sunrise, All-the-Time episode! It only took four full episodes, but Richard, Marc, and Jason finally pulled a fast one over Drew. Listen to the explosive amount of sarcasm as we review 1983's Crusher Joe, and Drew is soon facing Marc's banishment because of him not only recommending it, but being the sole person on the show to stand his ground and still like it. At least Marc agreed, after seeing Please Save My Earth again, that it really wasn't as good as he remembers it being. Drew is steadfast in his love for Crusher Joe, even though Sunrise can put out some "Quality" animation. We then review Mobile Suit Gundam F-91, for the same reason BBC would do a documentary on Albert II, because he hadn't been done yet. F-91 became a cult classic in Japan mostly thanks to it's high animation quality, manga counterparts and rough-shod production history. Drew and Richard thought it'd be okay for Marc, who's only Gundam experience was when Cartoon Network aired Gundam Wing all those years ago, and it backfires as there's a lot more that the old guard of Gundam fandom just understand that need not be stated and instead leaves new people confused. Marc gives it a mixed rating on this premise, while Drew, Richard and Jason wish they could rate it on what it was supposed to be.

Episode 6 - 404 Title Not Found
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
This week, we learn Jason is a heretic in the eyes of anime fans because he thinks Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa (1984) is a good film, but is generally not a fan of Miyazaki's works. Richard leads the Nausicaa review summary, which makes the film almost seem like a comedy but the film gets good to excellent ratings from us. Drew also rambles on forever about the old New World Pictures version of Warriors of the Wind; certainly an anime fan's worst nightmare. We're sure that at the next convention we're at, if anyone's heard this podcast, we expect Jason to disappear because he has desacrated a golden calf. We're sure we can find him where there are stakes set up and people chanting "Burn the witch!". Jason, in his defense, recommended a two episode OAV, Juumu GUNM or Battle Angel Alita (1992). And while not a bad production, Richard and Jason are quick to point out that the OAV is actually a poor adaptation of the manga. Presumably, this OAV didn't do too well because it's been over a decade with no new productions announced.

Episode 7 - Koko wa Podcast Tank Police!
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Hesitently, this episode we review another shoujo series, Koko wa Greenwood. This is Drew's recommendation and it proves out to be better received. Though, it being
a comedy which only begins to take itself seriously towards the end helped a lot. Jason tosses in DOMINION, better known as Dominion Tank Police, which a lot of people who either A) rented anime from Blockbuster Video, B) watched Sci-Fi Channel's Anime Saturday or C) both will remember from those experiences. For those who are familiar with Masamune Shirow's works like Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell, the rampant fanservice and penis-mines is an oddity in Masamune's cyberpunk works. Well, odder than penis-mines normally would be.

Episode 8 - Tetsuo Kaneda Podcast
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
It hit us that a lot of fans today haven't seen what was once a staple of North American anime fandom: AKIRA (1988). Jason and Drew make the mistake that Marc made earlier (and we never let him live it down) and co-recommended a two-episode OAV, Dragon Half (1988). AKIRA proves to hold up its legacy, even though the movie screenplay doesn't carry over its massive manga counterpart very well. There are a lot of comments with how nice and beautiful the animation is, especially given the lack of computers used on the film. Dragon Half, doesn't hold up to the scrutiny. Both Jason and Drew remember this being funny, though the years of hard drinking and becoming otherwise crusty old men has changed that perception on the subject matter.

Episode 9 - There is no win without fail
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
This episode we take on the iconic late 1980s cyberpunk classic OAV, Bubblegum Crisis (1987) and its aptly named sequel Bubblegum Crash. We watched this all practically back to back, which ends up being recommended against. Well, in general, watching Bubblegum Crash is recommended against.

Episode 10 - Now with less finals
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, and Jason Brown
Drew makes the huge mistake of thinking Richard still had finals, rather than what he really said, which was I just got done with finals. So, unfortunately, Richard is missed on this episode where we review Ouritsu Uchuugun Honeamisu no Tsubasa or Wings of Honneamise ("Wings of Hummus and Mayonaise") (1987) and 1988's
Kinsei Senki or Venus Wars.

Episode 11 - Christmas Craptacular
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Our first "Special Episode", though unlike a very special episode of Blossom, this is "special" in the vein of the short bus. The idea of Christmas Craptacular is to watch really shitty cartoons, just so everyone knows that just because we love old stuff doesn't mean we equate "old = good". For this episode we "review" (read: suffer through) Battle Arena Toshinden episode 1 and part of Genma Taisen, better known by its sensational English name, Harmageddon.

Episode 12 - Do you remember love?
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
We, much later, decided to use this episode of Akihabara Renditions to end our first "season". Richard will chastise me in later episodes for this whole season nonsense. That's what we have in the future - but what we have right now is probably the best damn cartoon movie that Japan - nay, anyone! - has ever made. We sit down and review only this single title because we can't handle how good this movie is and then try and do another title justice with a review. We review 1984's Superdimension Fortress Macross: Do You Rmemeber Love? and spooge all over ourselves. If its not evident by this point, Richard is an absolutely huge mecha-head (bigger than Drew because he likes other genres equally) and Drew comments that this is one of his longtime favorite movies and watches it at least once a year and Jason had seen it a couple times. Oh, and like a lot of things we review, this is Marc's first time watching it. Unlike his experience with Gundam F-91, DYRL? tends to do a good job of explaining things while messing with chronology.
UPDATE: If anyone cares, Drew bought a LaserDisc copy he spoke about briefly in this episode It looks fantastic!

Season Two - Radio Free Akiba

Episode 13 - Pen Testing
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Lucky 13 kicks off Season Two (which Richard quickly dubs each episode a new season) of the longest podcast no one's listened to! And, the Akihabara Renditions crew decides to kick things off in style! We touch another sacred cow grazing the mecha fields, Mobile Suit Gundam I (1981), the first in the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy. Marc is extatic because unlike F-91 reviewed back in episode 5, this movie explains things! This movie is a re-cap of the first part of the 1979 TV series and contains the least amount of new animation of the three and it shows. The only bad thing of note is that the movie can drag at points, only to be set up as a cliffhanger for the next film, Ai Senshi or Soldiers of Sorrow.

Episode 14 - Not a Zaku, Boy
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
Season Two/Fourteen continues on with the Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy, Mobile Suit Gundam II: Ai Senshi-hen (1981) or Soldiers of Sorrow. Our reviews generally cite this as a slow, second part of a trilogy. Drew loves the film, particularly the main theme, "Ai Senshi". Marc becomes mildly apprehensive over how the third and final part will play out as the plot only mildly advances in the second film. More touched up animation in this film leads to a beautiful viewing experience but still not free of "Quality" animation. Also, in the beginning, we talk about a particularly funny car advertisement - here it is.

Episode 15 - Inchinen Sensou Senshuu
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
This episode wraps up our review of the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy, Mobile Suit Gundam III: Meguri ai Sora-hen (1982) or Encounters in Space. Drew gets confused on the chronology as the film re-organizes events from the TV series, so please forgive him and Richard's constant "We're not there yet!". The four of us review the film as it stands alone then we review the entire trilogy as a single piece; Encounters gets good reviews for its action packed pacing and conclusion it also brings the entire trilogy up from where Soldiers of Sorrow left us. This is good because fans who want to get into Gundam from the beginning can only watch legitimately subbed DVDs of the films - the TV series has yet to have a subtitled release authorized for North America at this time.

Episode 16 - A Mid-summer's News Roundup
Hosts: Drew Sutton, Marc Smazik, Jason Brown and Richard Hoelsher
After a brief break (though you can't tell, right?) for the end of the semester and such, the four of us get back into the swing of things and come back with a news and commentary update... right before the huge news event that is Anime Expo. Drew's still filtering through the news that came out to see if there is anything relavent to our little piece of webcast-dom to comment upon the next episode we do. Here's what we talk about: Streaming anime, Bandai Visual's liquidation, PiQ goes out of print, Miyazaki Tsutomu, and surprisingly Inu Yasha. We'll be back with reviews soon!