SOTSM x DITB: Anime Quiz of 2017

Hope you studied up because it's time for Dynamite In The Brain's annual quiz of the anime year that was! Dwayne steps in to challenge Anthony, Lewis Smith and Elliot Page for the coveted quizzing crown, but will a mysterious challenger arrive to spoil the party? To find out you'll just have to LISTEN UP!

Let’s Go! Episode 72 – Let’s Look At Some Elves

Keep your eyes peeled or you might just miss the last Let's Go of the year! Leo is seeing something strange about his sister in Blood Blockade Battlefront, we coo at Bono Bono's baby pictures, Clasky Klasky have a brand new look in Classicaloid and Chise has her worldview expanded in The Ancient Magus Bride. What a sight!

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Show #161: The Stingiest Man In Town

It's the most wonderful time of the year when we delve into yet another animated adaptation of A Christmas Carol, 2017's entry being The Stingiest Man In Town!

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We've had a lot of good memories around Christmas courtesy of Rankin Bass and Studio Topcraft, and this elusive number based on an even more obscure 1950 TV musical looks set to deliver as well. However will the gauntlet of jaunty seasonal songs detract from the atmosphere of Charles Dickens' spooky parable? Awkward Christian messages, revenge fantasies and cross-dimensional Scrooges are waiting under the tree! Merry Christmas to you & yours everybody!

THE SHORT VERSION

Shared universes

Festive flourishes

The first diminutive Tom Bosley

Let’s Go! Episode 71 – Let’s Stare At Old Men

The hot new anime trend of shirtless old men is in full flow as G Fantasy return for one last adventure in Magical Circle Guru Guru and Ichiro races to prevent disaster in Inuyashiki. Elsewhere Lindel tells a story in The Ancient Magus' Bride, KK goes to school in Blood Blockade Battlefront and Bono Bono has a lot to worry about. Respect your elders!

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Show #160: Rise Of The Guardians

We get a head start on the holidays, as in ALL holidays, with the calendar character compendium of Rise Of The Guardians!

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There was an idea, to bring together a group of public domain childhood mascots to see if they could be something more than the awkward mish-mash of having Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy together in one film sounds like it would be. Will this be a cacophonous tableau that doesn't need to work because kids will watch anything? (the approach that seems to be on the minds of a lot of folks behind Dreamworks' output). Or will it prove greater than the sum of its parts?
Accurate swearing, Tumblr nonsense and our picks for the hypothetical sequel await for your ears!

Follow Niall's Quixotic attempt at writing for 12 days straight about anime over on Juve-Niall Delinquency!

THE SHORT VERSION

Bad(ass) Santa

Fairy fetishes

Hard-boiled bunnies

Let’s Go! Episode 70 – Let’s Get Small

Leo's larger-than-life buddy needs taking down a peg or ten in Blood Blockade Battlefront and there's only one monkey up to such a job. Seasoned adventurers G Fantasy offer a few lessons to Nike & Kukuri in Magical Circle Guru Guru, it's hip to be square in Classicaloid, Hiro goes full Terminator in Inuyashiki and two more universes meet their fates in Dragon Ball Super. Good things come in small packages!

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Let’s Go! Episode 69 – Let’s Be Friends With The Wind

Bono Bono and friends attempt to make a powerful ally, and they're not the only ones forging new alliances! Chise gets a new dog, Mozart makes good on a promise and Leo teams up to take down a tiny terrorist before the entire cast of Mr Osomatsu all get stuck on each other. Let's be pals!

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Let’s Go! Episode 68 – Let’s Romance Three Kingdoms

Mr Osomatsu pulls an OG Time Bokan 24 and brings you the REAL story of the famous Chinese historical saga, which is way more puerile than what you learned in school! After that you better clean your ears with Bono Bono, get fixed up for a date in Classicaloid and don't be late for the New Year's Eve party in Blood Blockade Battlefront! CHARGE!

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Stuff Shown At Hibanacon 2017!

It's been long enough and I finally have a spare moment to thank all the fine folks who opted to take in the panels I put on at the inaugural Hibanacon anime convention. As is usual so many people get to asking what the heck they were just bombarded with that I've compiled an easy to digest list so you can relive those fond panel room memories in the comfort of your own home, and if you missed out this time look out for more of this mania in the schedule of a convention near you in the not-too-distant future!


HELL IN A CEL - BEST ANIME FIGHT SCENES

• Tsukikage Ran - Carried By The Wind
• Shura No Toki
• Ninja Girl and Samurai Master
• Air Master
• Dragon Ball Super
• Ranma 1/2
• Wicked City
• Ninja Scroll
• Fate Zero
• Grappler Baki - The Ultimate Fighter
• Shadow Skill: Epilogue
• Variable Geo
• Birdy The Mighty: Decode
• Legends Of The Dark King
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Keijo!!!!!!!!
• Sword Of The Stranger

GAMBLING & GAMES IN ANIME & MANGA

• Poker King
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
• Gamble Fish
• Kakegurui
• One Outs
• Liar Game
• Usogui
• Riman Gambler Mouse
• Mahjong Hisho-den Naki No Ryuu
• Death Pie
• Legendary Gambler Tetsuya
• The Legend Of Koizumi
• Ten: The Nice Guy On The Path Of Mahjong
• Akagi
• Kaiji
• Gambling Emperor Legend Zero
• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

Let’s Go! Episode 67 – Let’s Go To The Movies

Luke takes in a flick in Garo: Vanishing Line but will it turn out to be the Horror story he's after? Meanwhile Nike and Kukuri experience parenthood firsthand, the agents of Libra are locked out of the office, Chipmunk finds a rival and Iyami has arrived! It's a good time at the pictures!

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Show #159: The Book Of Life

Times are tough but our undying spirit persists onward, eager to get our nose into the first chapter of The Book Of Life!

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Now where have we seen this before? A certain recent Pixar film may be parading this same aesthetic around but Jorge Gutiérrez and company had already taken us to an astonishing afterlife inspired by Dia de los Muertos some years back. However is this spectacular vision in danger of being superseded by more worldly concerns? Unfortunate family film requirements, moustache analysis and Niall's inability to read credits properly are a page away!

THE SHORT VERSION

A lavish world

An overload of ideas

A better main character

Let’s Go! Episode 66 – Let’s Hold Hands

Our great time of tribulation and strife grinds onward, so hold onto your buddy and we'll get through this thing together! Caulifla and Kale enact their strategy to defeat Goku in Dragon Ball Super, mobsters face a little street justice in Inuyashiki, brains are burglarised in Blood Blockade Battlefront and Magical Circle Guru Guru is unusually measured and coherent. Here's hoping we get a better grasp on things soon!

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Let’s Go! Episode 65 – Let’s Start A Cult

Behold your new god! Dvorak's infectious solemnity holds sway over the land even as things remain hectic in the rest of the anime docket. Caulifla and Kale team up to take on Goku in Dragon Ball Super, some cats get the chop in The Ancient Magus' Bride, Ichiro cleans up these streets in Inuyashiki and we tag along on Chain's side gig in Blood Blockade Battlefront. PUGI!

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Let’s Go! Episode 64 – Let’s Think Of A New Game

It's all the fun of the fair as your fave forest friends brainstorm an exciting new hobby sure to take the world by storm. Or why not spend your time baking a cake, gaining a new power level, altering the fabric of reality and inventing the world's first "marital aid"? This way you won't get so bored that you mercilessly slaughter an entire family. That's the name of the game!

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Show #158: Extreme Ghostbusters

Greg Driver of Ace Comicals is the new kid on the block, making a frightful ruckus this Halloween about Extreme Ghostbusters!

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Eager to escape the trappings of their allegedly less cool forebears, the 90s were rife with retools and reboots of older properties hoping to capitalise on a new generation of impressionable kids. He-Man and GI Joe got theirs so it was only a matter of time before everybody's favourite tech start-up got the treatment. Does it keep the spirit of the original or is it yet another lost soul? Political poltergeists, comic counterparts and slime scarcity to come!

THE SHORT VERSION

Creepy ghosts

Positive representation

'Ey, woah, fuck yoo pal.

Let’s Go! Episode 63 – Let’s Stop Watching Welcome To The Ballroom

After one misstep too many Welcome To The Ballroom crashes ignominiously out of the running, it's slack then summarily taken up by The Ancient Magus' Bride and Inuyashiki. That's all on top of the avalanche of new things we've elected to attempt to keep up with, elaborated on the Let's Go installment I couldn't repost last week due to inclement weather/lives. What a disaster!

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Show #157: Rock-A-Doodle

Rain delays play but now you finally get to hear us wade through the washed up mess that is Rock-A-Doodle!

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Don Bluth, Donny old boy, we keep coming back to you despite our best interests and we're starting to wonder why. Rock-A-Doodle is expectedly the incoherent muddle that unfortunately has come to overshadow the bright spots in your career, but perhaps we're drawn back because of the infinitely more fascinating circumstances surrounding the inception and production of this film. Literary history, real life tragedy and obvious better story ideas that somehow got passed over are uncovered within!

THE SHORT VERSION

Horny animator strikes again

Evil owl fellas

Seamless interplay

Let’s Go! Episode 61 – Let’s Watch a Lot of Bonobono

All good things must come to an end but there is one constant in our lives we can always rely on - the surreal adventures of a sea otter and his forest friends. A bonanza of Bono Bono picks up the slack this time as some series take time off and others come to an expectant or acrimonious finish. Don't bully us!

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Show #156: Recess

It's a hard life returning to the confines of those old school walls but take solace in the fact that you'll always have Recess!

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Part of the new wave of original Disney TV shows that arose in the wake of stiff competition from other kids networks, Recess was a bonafide enduring hit when it first aired. But does this tall tale of schoolyard shenanigans have anything to offer audiences today? Subversive political messages, creepy fans and our own educational history all come out to play!

THE SHORT VERSION

The big house

Societal analogues 

Homages

Let’s Go! Episode 60 – Let’s Move To Worlds Beyond Sunday

Brian's days of recounting vaguely comprehensible nonsense to us are over for now as Heybot draws to a close, while another font of insanity will be missed with the conclusion of Vatican Miracle Examiners. Rage Of Bahamut may also be heading to a shocking and upsetting conclusion but things only seem to be going up in gear in Dragon Ball Super, Magical Circle Guru Guru and Welcome To The Ballroom. The end is nigh!

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SOTSM x DITB: Your Name

While you eagerly await the next instalment why not catch up with Niall's appearance on Dynamite In The Brain where Makoto Shinkai's magnum opus Your Name gets a thorough combing over. Does it live up to the acclaim showered upon it by the viewing public? Our consensus is... maybe!

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Let’s Go! Episode 59 – Let’s Go See A Paw

.................Why the big pause? Because Bono Bono is even weirder than usual! More shocking turns as Mineta actually does something valiant in My Hero Academia, Charioce's master plan unfolds in Rage Of Bahamut and Heybot reveals the secrets of the universe, while unsurprisingly Frost acts like a massive tool in Dragon Ball Super. Give us five!

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Show #155: Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos

Because we're about due for a bad idea we try and ascertain an explanation for the persistent notoriety of Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos.

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Our foray into Ruby Spears-fronted celebrity tie-in cartoons was surprisingly fruitful last time with Mr T and his gang of mystery solving teens. Can the formula work again for Karate Kommandos, a show more often experienced solely via out-of-context video clips? Colourful ninjas, high henchman turnover, moral codes and not-so-secret agents get in the mix!

THE SHORT VERSION

Para-gators

Super ninjas

Sweaty wisdom

Let’s Go! Episode 58 – Let’s Dress Up Like A Dog

Do you remember Goma-chan? He's back! In dog form! Meanwhile some ruff justice is about to be dished out in Rage of Bahamut, Vatican Miracle Examiners sniff out some leads, dogged determination in My Hero Academia and our heroes are hounded by an old foe in Magical Circle Guru Guru. We're best in show!

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Let’s Go! Episode 57 – Let’s Jump Into A Boiling Pot

Get ready for a scare at bedtime as the Vatican Miracle Examiners cash in on the renewed creepy clown craze with a case involving a horrifying harlequin. Nobody else is resting easy either as the Rage Of Bahamut crew have a traitor in their ranks, the students of My Hero Academia cram for exams, Dragon Ball Super is under fire and Welcome To The Ballroom works hard to get back in our good graces. Sweet dreams!

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Show #154: Concise Cartoon Combat Combo! Kizuna Ichigeki and Trava - Fist Planet

Niall has returned! To get him back into shape in short order though we'll need a special intensive workout session, so what better than the one two punch of Kizuna Ichigeki and Trava - Fist Planet!

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A brace of brief battle shows presented itself before us and believing them a tad short for a podcast by themselves we elected to roll them up into one outing. Kizuna Ichigeki gives us the tale of a crazy karate family defrauding a martial arts tournament and their efforts to deal with the repercussions that follow, while Trava is a little episode in the lives of two of Redline's favourite racers years before they competed on the big screen. A pair of strong contenders indeed, but who will win? Does it matter? To find out you'll just have to listen up!

THE SHORT VERSION

Pint-sized pugilists

Space aces

To Be Continued? (no)

Let’s Go! Episode 56 – Let’s Throw A Frog Down A Waterfall

Dwayne and Brian continue to uphold order in Niall's absence even as it threatens to break down in the world of anime! Breaking & entering in Rage of Bahamut, attempted frog murder in Bono Bono and possible tournament rule violations in Dragon Ball Super to name a few. At least the Vatican Miracle Examiners get their man but not without uncovering a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top!

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