Because a house certainly cannot have four, or six leaves. That just wouldn't do.

What’s this?! A podcast releasing on schedule?! Why yes… yes it is! The OSMcast! once again returns faithfully to your audio-listening side as we discuss Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves, with the manga being released by Viz Media and the anime being streamed online by FUNimation. Joining us for this not so action packed episode is the voice actor extraordinaire that is Micah Solusod, and Charlie from PodcastSuperFriends™  the Chainsaw Buffet podcast. It’s 41+ minutes of podcast fun!

OSMnotes

House of Five Leaves is a thing that should be read! Or watched! So we expect that you all will be getting to that immediately. If you are already a smart, lovely, and amazing person that already knew about the wonders of House of Five Leaves, then would you like to try an awesome visual novel-styled game that isn’t porn? Perhaps a murder mystery? Might we suggest you take a look over at sakevisual? While you folks are working on that, we’ll be heading out to super hot and also steamy Baltimore, Maryland this weekend for an exciting adventure at Otakon. It will be exciting! And adventrous!

And at some point I’m sure we’ll be telling you all about it. In podcast form.

According to Lee: "The blue lines aren't because I drew it on notebook paper. They are in fact the enemy robot's barrier shield that the OSMrobo is ripping through."

As we all know, the first thing you do in a new year is to look back at the previous year, unless you have a decade to deal with. So to ring in 2011 we have got the first half of the 2010 OSMawards! In this just-shy-of-two-hours BEHEMOTH of a podcast we tackle the “passive” media of 2010. TV shows, movies, anime, novels, stuff you consume but don’t interact with… pretty much everything expect video games.  So strap in, get some nice hot cocoa a warmin’, and listen to us yammer for a while!

Bonus: And gaze up the MAJESTY that is OSMrobo that Lee drew while recording. His fists are fists of JUSTICE. And awesomeness.

OSMnotes

Bonus props to Narutaki of Reverse Thieves for rising to the challenge letting us know her picks via Twitter to help us fill in the gaps! If you’s also like to your thoughts in on a particular subject before we record, just keep an eye out for Basil’s twitter feed. Usually the day of recording or so, he’ll be asking for input.

Speaking of asking for input, Basil was invited onto the Chainsaw Buffet podcast to further talk about the year 2010, which he did with gusto. Keep an eye for it!

Cross Game. Sweet, sweet Cross Game.

It’s time to hit another OSMcast out of the park as we talk about Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game! That said, the only actual OSMcast player on this one is Basil, as everyone else was brought in from other podcasts. We’re joined by the Reverse Thieves: Hisui and Narutaki, as well as by Drew of Akihabra Renditions. So one could say it’s an All-Star team this episode. Also, it’s two hours long, probably because there was no one to keep Basil in check.

Musical Interlude: Girl Talk! Drew’s Moment of OSM becomes the soundtrack to which this episode rocks to. Considering the mash-up nature of this episode, it is somewhat appropriate!

OSMnotes

You can stream Cross Game in anime form via Hulu, and you can purchase Cross Game in manga form from Amazon, among other retailers. And you should! It is amazing stuff, that will harm your heart and crush you soul, if you’d just let it!

Also watch Sym-Bionic Titan. And Star Driver. Both are quality mecha-fied experiences that deliver top-notch giant robot but also kids in high school action.

And if you happen to be in Huntsville, AL this weekend we’re helping throw a pretty awesome minicon on Saturday, where Basil will be running panels and DJ Inubito will be spinning beats.

dollar dollar bill y'all

Some people say that today is Columbus Day, where some dude in 1492 took an unexpected vacation to the Bahamas. Some others will tell you that today is National Coming Out Day, a day of civil awareness and discourse about LGBT, in which I have discovered is NOT the acronym for Legend of the Galactic Heroes, I just always get those confused! BUT NO. Today is actually the OSMcast Releases a Podcast about RIN-NE Day!  This Awesomely Recognized holiday (recognized by all human beings that like awesome things, and also puppies) is so called because today was the day we released an episode about Rumiko Takahashi’s latest manga work, RIN-NE.

How exciting!

Black Jack. He's a REAL DOCTOR.

For this episode of the OSMcast! we decided to tangle with Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, being released by Vertical. But frankly the dark doctor was more than we could handle alone, so we had to call in some  back up. Who in the world could save us? None other than Clarissa from the Anime World Order podcast! So come listen in as we talk about the surgical sweetness that is Black Jack.

OSMnotes

While I know locally it’s not terribly hard to track down volumes of this manga, I also know you can always pick up a copy on Amazon. So buy it. You’ll thank us later.

You hear that, you're ALL going DOWN. ... With Laughter. At AWA.

And yes, that’s right in a mere matter of weeks the OSMcast! shall be taking our annual sojourn to greatest anime con of the southeast, Anime Weekend Atlanta. There will be thrills, chills, excitement, PODCASTING. Worlds will be rocked. Minds, BLOWN. Also, we have panels. Basil will be teaming up with Drew from Akihabara Renditions for two action-packed riveting panels of amazement. Now, if you listened to the podcast, and why wouldn’t you, you already know what’s going down. But for those of you that for some reason are reading this instead of immediately clicking on that arrow for audio epiphany, he’s some spoilers.

Okay I'll admit it. I just wanted an excuse to post this amazing poster.

For one, we’ll be hosting an Engrish Jamboree. Yeah, a whole panel of Japanese people trying to speaking English and failing spectacularly. It’s incredibly politically correct! And THEN, or perhaps before (I have no clue which panel comes first), we’ll he hosting AWA’s Wide World of Sports (Anime). In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s a panel on sports anime, and why it’s awesome. And if you disagree, why you’re WRONG.

And speaking of being wrong, the Expendables was awesome and you like stuff being blown up, shot at, or stabbed and hearing wonderfully horrendous dialog you should have already seen it. Oh wait, I guess everyone already did. So uh, go see Scott Pilgrim! Apparently no one has gotten around to doing that yet.

Gekiga: The Other White Meat, if Meat was Manga, and not Meat

After going two months, almost to the day, of not having a podcast with an actual date in the title, we bring it back old school with a podcast about something really old school. We speak of a most super-hyper-mega-awesome manga A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi: A Drifting Life. It’s his auto-biography, but done in manga form.

Since you know, he creates manga and all.

It’s awesome.

This is Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies of Awesome You Should Play This The Video Game

OSMnotes

A Drifting Life is just under $20 at Amazon at the time of this post. You should go buy it! You can also buy Dragon Quest IX from Amazon, but I’m pretty sure you can buy that wherever video game are being sold. It’s a pretty good one!

But seriously, make sure you get A Drifting Life. The manga is an inspiring work, and anyone with a love for manga is sure to come away a better person for having read it. A work like this is honestly an incredibly rare treat for us, and something that everyone should indulge themselves in.

Because sometimes even webcomics needs a shot of espresso.

And if you are interested in reading things like online comics, Eric and Lee have kicked off a brand new webcomic called Affogato Style. And if you are not, then uh… Go anyway. It’s got coffee, and explosions, and sometimes, it’s even funny.

*Since manga doesn’t exactly have a soundtrack, our stupendous soundman picked out some tracks for the breaks. They are: Gabriel & Dresden Ft. Molly – Tracking Treasure and DownPaul van Dyk – We are alive (DJ Iceys Arctic Bass Mix).

Carl Gustav Horn in all his glory, representing the Big D. H.

When we started the OSMcast!, there were a few people we knew we just had to interview. This is one of them! So we decided to finally dust off our interview from Ohayocon 10 and present to you The Life and Times of Carl Gustav Horn, Dark Horse’s most baddass manga editor. the man has worked on such titles as the manga version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Shinji Ikari Raising Project, Clover, and others. He talks to us on how he got started in the industry, he thoughts on the importance of buying anime and manga in the US, and more.

OSMnotes

I don’t know why you are reading this and not listening to Carl Horn talk. I mean all we had to REALLY do is just say “Start!” and the man whisked us away on a tale of adventure and manga editing.

Soul Eater

This time on the OSMcast! we decided things were getting little too old in the mix, so we thought we’d review something a bit newer. So here’s a podcast all about the anime adaptation of Soul Eater by BONES, from the original work by Atsushi Okubo.

OSMnotes

Rail kept complaining that the opening wasn’t HARDCORE enough. So hopefully it sufficed. While Funimation has the rights to the Soul Eater anime and will surely be releasing the DVDs at some point, Yen Press has the manga rights and will start releasing the manga in stand alone volumes starting in October. In the meantime the Soul Eater manga is being printing in their monthly Yen Plus magazine.

So, we asked in this episode about the use of our forum. Would you like for us to have our own set of forums, or would you just like us to use the forums we actually have? Let us know!

There is also contest stuff but Basil is lazy and has work in the morning so you can just scroll down and see what’s up in a previous OSMnotes.

Azumanga Daioh

In tonight’s episode of the OSMcast! we talk about J.C. Staff’s adaptaion of Kiyohiko Azuma’s awesome series: Azumanga Daioh!

With special guest star DJ Inubito as “The guy playing Fable II while we talking about stuff.”

OSMnotes

Thanks to ADV’s awesome habit of making collections of stuff they make, you can not only now own the entire anime in a Thinkpack box set, you can also buy the entire manga run in one giant omnibus edition. 

This is coming out soonish!

Normally we have this stuff uploaded by Sunday night so it’ll be ready for your listening enjoyment bright and early Monday morning. But we just got back from Nekocon late last night and could not stay conscious enough to make it happen. Hopefully Monday evening will be just as nice! And if you must have it in the morning, I hear Tuesday is also a good day for it!

Speaking of Nekocon, it was a blast.

This comes out soonish after!

I’m sure we’ll be doing a con report on it at some point in the near future! Possibly even next week.

If you have any questions about the con, or about Azumanga Daioh, or you know, anything… Just leave us some feedback in one of our many myriad ways. Like for exmaple, the comments section! Or an email! You could also (dare I say it…!) even leave us a voice mail!

OSMnotes

We talk about a lot of stuff that’s actually kinda out of date! But that’s OK, because it’s all still awesome.  And so is Cromartie and you should buy a version of it right now.

Also:

Best. Trailer. Ever.

Check back with us next week when we take on Gainax’s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!

OSMnotes

Really you should go buy a copy of Mushishi in one form or another right now. Though you’ll probably have to special order it. But that’s okay because this manga and anime is pretty special.

In that good way, not that short bus special or anything.

So go git it.

Like, now.

Go!

OSMnotes

Okay so admittedly I just beat MGS4, so at the moment I’m busy going “OMG MGS4 MGS4!!!!” therefore actual show notes aren’t exactly on my mind. Though I am sad to find out the Wal-Mart sale is apparently already over so… oops. Hopefully those of you out there will have already realized this deal and have bought one!

The rest of you should follow my lead and steal I mean borrow them from all your friends that just obtained those PS3s and play Metal Gear Solid 4 on them. I want to say that this new Metal Gear is good enough that you’ll want to buy a PS3 anyway, but I know that’s just the MGS fanboy in me and that overall the 360 is still
the better gaming system.

… Maybe.

Kekkaishi is also an awesome show and an even more awesome manga. You should go buy all of the manga now. They have 14 volumes so far out so you have plenty to catch up on!

Oh and email us (osmcast@gmailDOTcom), comment, voice mail, let us know you exist, the usual.

Metal Gear!!!