Zannen, Canada

The annual Zannen, Canada holiday special has arrived! This year, voice actors Caitlyn Bairstow, Ian Hanlin, Brian Doe and Disney-approved Spider-Man actor Cole Howard join me live from GGRP Studios in Vancouver to share their favourite media from 2019 including Seiss Manos, Alita, The Dragon Prince, O Maidens in Your Savage Season, and a whole lot of independent films such as Gemini, Shuttlecock, Tokyo Lovers and Puppet Killer.

The year is 1997. After years of careful planning, Canadian broadcasting consortiums have unleashed upon the public an assortment of new cable channels, all of which are wildly experimental in their attempts to gain your attention. Among these channels is Teletoon, although it is very different from the Teletoon we know today. It is bold, it is ambitious, and it is so determined to get the attention of adult audiences that it is willing to harness the raw power of Manga Entertainment with Late Night Anime. Ashley joins me once again to talk about the four movies that were central to this effort: Ninja Scroll, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Patlabor: The Movie and Patlabor 2: The Movie. What an age it was.

This episode is all about Animethon, Canada's oldest anime convention, despite denying being an anime convention for a significant portion of that time. Eryn Cerise, Ian Horner and Brendan "Beej" Dery help paint a picture of how what started as a membership booster for an Edmonton anime club grew into one of the epicentres of anime fandom in Western Canada - not to mention the increasingly crowded anime improv scene.

In 1997, CBC's Undercurrents ran a legendary exposé on otaku as obsessive collectors of data. It featured William Gibson, Hitoshi Doi, as well as a charming fellow with an overzealous fixation on Sailor Mercury. That fellow was Gregory Taylor, and he joins me in this episode to talk about the segment, as well Sailor Moon chat groups in the 1990s, rogue anime screenings at the University of Waterloo, anthropomorphized math concepts and his own cataloged experiences in the world of Sailor Moon online roleplaying. In a separate segment, I also talk about Anime Revolution 2019, and the unfortunate controversy surrounding the event this year. Full Undercurrents Otaku Segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcczGPlbrYQ Music Video featuring Greg: Alex Lacasse - "Like This, Like That" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ekMLv7ITH4 Greg's Website: Occasional Homepage of Gregory Taylor - http://web.ncf.ca/cz159/ Greg's Twitter: @mathtans Anime News Network article on AniRevo 2019: Victims Speak Out After Canada'

Information on donating to Kyoto Animation directly: https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/07/24-1/kyoto-animation-officially-starts-accepting-donations-through-bank-transfer GoFundMe donations through Sentai Filmworks: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kyoani-heal Karl and Corey share their thoughts on the horrific arson attack at Kyoto Animation. We also discuss the surprising prospects of Toonami on Adult Swim Canada, and why it may not have the content you want! We also go predictably in-depth about Warner's recent announcement of HBO Max and how it has possibly destroyed any reasonable expectation we had for their streaming strategy.

Ashley Hakker joins me to talk about the remarkable, unstoppable life-form that is Anime North. All of the planning in the world could never have prepared me to properly absorb this convention in one go, and together we talk about its history and the exact ingredients that caused it to become the giant glorious mess that it is today.

Not to be confused with the Margaret Atwood novel, Cat's Eye (or "Signé Cat's Eyes") aired in French on Radio-Canada in the late 80s and early 90s, and oh boy did it stick out like a sore thumb on that line-up. Chris joins me once again to share his own experiences watching the show. Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast also appears to give her own perspective on how well this show really holds up. We touch on many important points such as Club Dorothée, the connections to Nicky Larson (sometimes referred to as "City Hunter") and what it must be like to discover classic anime through Citypop and Vaporwave videos as opposed to just being old.

With little notice, Corus launched the world's first ever 24/7 Adult Swim network, and the good certainly seems to outweigh the bad... at least if you ignore the lack of streaming options! Sketch from the Toonami Faithful Podcast, as well as Karl, help me take a close look at what this new channel does right, what it does wrong, and what it still needs to do to truly capture the Adult Swim voice. The channel's launch also raises many questions, such as: will this stuff ever appear online again? What is the future of CanCon on this station? WILL WE EVER SEE TOONAMI? We do not have answers to these questions, but we certainly have plenty of speculation. You like speculation, right?

With nine different voice actors for Goku and a LOT of bad theme songs, the Dragon Ball franchise has been an odd patchwork in Canada, but not one that has derailed its success in any way. Geoff and Yazy join me to talk about discovering and following Dragon Ball/Z/GT through all its different dubs, and try our best to clear up some misconceptions on why so may different versions hit the airwaves. We have so much fun that we completely forgot to mention that Dragon Ball Evolution aired on YTV at one point.

Lots of amazing theatrical anime release happened in 2018... but you may have noticed that very few of them came to Canada, especially compared to the previous two years. Randy joins me to try and explain the many factors that may have led to this somewhat sorry state of affairs. We also talk about all of the great anime films we did manage to see, despite these setbacks.

Curating the many great anime, TV shows, films, comics and music of 2018 is pretty much an impossible task, but Dave Merrill and Chris (aka Kurotsuki) join me in this holiday special to at least help navigate their personal favourite pieces of media of the year. Hear us discuss about Cells at Work, Joe Pera Talks With You, Hereditary and one really great Macross Delta song. (Don't consider that an endorsement of Macross Delta, though!)

Few things compare to the sheer might in which Goldorak (the French version of UFO Robo Grendizer) took French-speaking Canada by storm when it first debuted in 1978. While not particularly well-loved in Japan, Goldorak has proven to be one of Go Nagai's most impactful creations worldwide, and has influenced youth programming in ways you may not expect - even in the Anglosphere!. But does Goldorak still matter to Quebec and other francophones around the country? Dave Merrill and Chris (aka Kurotsuki) join me to explore the issue, and also help paint one of the best pictures of French-Canadian anime fandom you're likely to find. NOTE: In this episode, we incorrectly state that Goldorak aired on Radio-Canada. It actually aired on TVA! For more extensive information, visit www.zannen.ca Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood Jesse's Recommended Grendizer/Goldorak Episodes: 1, 2, 12, 14, 23, 26,

WOW Unlimited will be launching a new television channel soon in collaboration with Bell Media, and the chances are looking very good that it will feature an anime line-up of some kind. Why should anyone care about a linear television channel in this day and age? With some notable heavy hitters behind the scenes, as well as an incredibly strong streaming outlet in the form of Crave, this station and brand may have more of an impact than you'd expect. Karl joins me to discuss the potential benefits, as well as some of the dystopian side effects, of where the broadcast and streaming future of this channel could take anime, as well as the whole damned Canadian media ecosystem. Is that enough hyperbole for you? Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood

The Bush Baby, an anime based on a Canadian novel, was one of a minority of World Masterpiece Theatre titles to receive an English dub. This dub aired on TVO and Access Alberta in 1993 and then... vanished. It was thought to be lost forever, until it was finally recovered in its entirety earlier this year. Rania, who had the series archived for years, joins me in a retrospective look back on both the show itself, as well as the story of how this important historical artifact was preserved for so long. Mike Toole also joins us to shed a little bit of light on World Masterpiece Theatre licensing, and why this is such an important find. And yes, he does sing the theme song! Rania's YouTube Channel where The Bush Baby English dub has been uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/user/Talim2004/videos For more extensive information, visit www.zannen.ca Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood

Since the early 90s, Raj Ramayya has had a rich career in the Japanese music industry, spanning commercials, to children's shows, to video games and, of course, to anime music collaborations with the likes of Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain) and Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss). He joins me in this episode to talk about how a foreigner from Saskatchewan could achieve such a prosperous career in Japanese media. For more extensive information, visit http://www.zannen.ca Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood

Sarah joins me to talk about Anime Revolution 2018, including the big improvements from last year, as well as complaining about panels that pad out time with Q&A because they can't fill a full hour with proper content. Incidentally, we get through this topic in about 30 minutes, and then proceed to fill the rest of the episode with discussion about current anime shows this season. Sarah's Twitter: @kittyandtea Website: http://www.zannen.ca Twitter: @jbetteridge Podcast Twitter: @zannencanada E-mail: zannencanada@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zannencanada/ Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: http://ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood

Why was Mobile Suit Gundam SEED a success here but not the United States? Daryl Surat and Jarvis Gray join me to explain, in yet another retrospective episode on anime that have had a unique cultural impact in Canada. (Honestly though, we spend more time ranting about Gundam SEED Destiny, how that show is unfairly lumped in with its predecessor and why you should NOT watch the new HD remastered version of either series under any circumstances whatsoever.) Website: http://www.zannen.ca Twitter: @jbetteridge Podcast Twitter: @zannencanada E-mail: zannencanada@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zannencanada/ Theme song by Karl Olson. Check out Packet Flood, the album all of this show's music is taken from, on his Bandcamp: http://ultraklystron.com/album/packet-flood Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/zannen-canada/id1013994040?mt=2# Subscribe on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/I7t6yo7bjokkdk4rce66ygomsny Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/pod

Matthew Erickson is one of the few voice actors who has worked (physically, at least) at both Ocean Studios locations. He made the leap from working at Blue Water Studios in Calgary to Westwood Studios in Vancouver, and is noted for his roles as Shinn Aska in Gundam SEED Destiny, Amuro Ray in Zeta Gundam and Trunks in the Blue Water dub of Dragonball GT. He joins me in this episode to talk about his experiences as a voice actor across two cities.

Karl (aka Ultraklystron) and I reunite to discuss a few things that occurred this past April Fools' Day; namely Sakura-Con 2018 and Reboot: The Guardian Code. Karl also has a lot more to say about the new FLCL than I do.

Are FUNimation and Crunchyroll abandoning theatrical anime in Canada? Is Netflix eradicating unique media phenomena at a national level? Is Violet Evergarden worth coming back to every week? Eryn and I discuss all of this, and Devilman Crybaby too!