MetaVerse Episode 25: Anime-Powered Technology
The MetaCast chats about technology and the anime that powers them
Welcome listeners to MetaVerse! With series like Robotics;Notes and Psycho-Pass having a lot of technological components to them among other themes, we decided to get together and talk about the different kinds of technology we’ve seen in anime over the years. As the show notes will reveal, we touch on a number of topics relating to technology and the animes themselves. Also, Fosh hypothesizes on how the Dominator guns from Psycho-Pass are powered.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:20:19 — 64.0MB)
SHOW NOTES
00:00 – 01:43 – Intro (“Tech=Nology” by Ayahi Takagaki from Fight Ippatsu! Juden-chan)
01:44 – 09:48 – Mecha
09:49 – 19:06 – Outer Space
19:07 – 32:45 – Cyborgs / Androids / A.I.
32:46 – 33:52 – SpeakEasy Podcast Promo
33:53 – 34:57 – Intermission (“A.I. Squadron Tachikoma” from Ghost in the Shell)
34:58 – 46:19 – Virtual / Game Worlds
46:20 – 1:05:10 – Out There Science – Time Travel, Parallel Worlds & Super Powers
1:05:11 – 1:15:47 – Tech from anime we wish we had
1:15:48 – 1:20:19 – Outro (“Uninstall (Trance Remix)” by Chiaki Ishikawa from Bokurano)
Hope you were “wired” in to our discussion. Thanks for listening!
About Meta Cast
The team behind Metanorn's Podcast, MetaVerse. Our aniblogging experience gives us the expertise to dish out detailed opinions on which series to watch and ones to drop. And remember, we take fangirling seriously!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Good techno episode guys. I want to do a Time travel theme later as it has been dabbled a lot on all entertainment fronts.
About Space Bros, I think it’s been one of the consistent long-running shows of recent times. I thought in the beginning that I would be pretty bored of all the training and slow progress but then there’s lots of feel good moments and just the process of knowing the characters and how they ended up in their current state is pretty good. It definitely got on dragging state before Hibito’s launch but it’s finally Mutta’s turn to go for it and I’m still watching and smiling. They don’t delve on the technology part a lot but the explanation of Hibito’s spaceship launch and why it has so many parts was described well in the least.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thank you boss lady! It was an interesting talk and yeah we might have a tech 2.0 podcast one of these days~
I haven’t seen much of space bros but from what I hear they are getting most of the space training correct, but the biggest complaint is the pacing! I know that is why I stopped watching it >.<
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I agree with both of you about Space Bros. Feel good show, though sometimes it likes to hammer the point home a little too much. Sometimes I watch and think, “we get it, they’re brothers…”
But yeah, Mutta being back in the spotlight and likely Kenji & Serika there too should be good.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 154 comments
Awesome discussion. Definitely worth listening to and I’m happy I at least knew what you were talking about in animes half the time 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thank you very much! I am glad we provided something entertaining <3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Isn’t the Kill-Ballad control scheme a bespoke creation of one person? Given that, I see, the now exploding, open source software and perhaps hardware going into it. I kinda love the world of Robotics;Notes in the respect of the ever present tablet computer.
Loli-powered? I think you guys were talking about the trope, “Powered by a Forsaken Child”. If a Dominator was loli-powered, the chain-reaction elimination of Pedobears would be brutal.
What tech would I love? Well, I would love to have my own priate spaceship. But, given my age, I’m rapidly approaching the time where I would bequeathing my ship to my Spawn. So, guess I just have to rest atop my massive pile of swag. Given that my Spawn in a combo of Rinne’s Madoka, Gruier Serenity, and the tsundere of freakin’ Misaka from Railgun/Index, that ship may not last long.
But really, I’m looking at something that is more five and ten years down the road. Mobile computing is very exciting. The idea where we can have one device on the go, and that device can be a workstation and a playstation in the home or an office job (or as a freelance writer) is a compelling one. And, as I mention above, it might just be more open source than walled garden.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I love the world of Robotic;Notes because it gives us a realistic view on how real life mechs are HARD to build and very expensive…
YES! Loli-powered-dominator for the win! There probably is a anti-pedobear setting that instantly one shots those creepy people.
Hell ya! I want a space ship and yeah I like the idea of more portable tech like an advanced tablet or virtual room generator like in Psycho-Pass please k thx!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Down, Spammy. Down, I say. You don’t want me, Highway’s comments are much more fattening!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Your comment has been saved! Congratulations <3
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Sure, skylion, give Spammy ideas.
Yeah, there’s one caught in the filter for me.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh ho, sure, skylion. Distract Spammy with some bait then it’s every man for himself.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m Chaotic Neutral on bad days, Neutral Good on my best ones…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Great podcast as usual, Meta Team.
I, in my opinion, think the mecha designs have gotten sleeker with the new animes like Rinne no Lagrange, Eureka Seven AO and Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (In the later episodes, though). Since the timeline in Robotics;Notes is supposedly close to ours, their robotics are still in their infancy.
Chastise you missing some shows? You guys are gluttons for punishment but not to worry, we’ll do our worst. For the mecha, you forgot Rinne no Lagrange, Infinite Stratos and Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse.
Sword Art Online is between 2024 and 2025. Virtual / Game Worlds, in my opinion, are the ultimate dream of escape for people. They want to get away from it all, get control in their own hands and have fun. Accel World is anime that expresses that sentiment the most because their Neuro Linker technology seemed to be without severe consequence unlike the NerveGear in SAO.
The most notable superpowers created by technology are those from Index/Railgun, the Void Genome ability from Guilty Crown, the armor from Senki Zesshou Symphogear and the Branch of Sin ability from Deadman Wonderland. You, yourself, are the weapon. I’m a fan of the Index, Void Genome and Branch of Sin powers because they’re sneaky and lethal.
The Index characters got their powers through study of the brain and their development to become espers. Like configuring each different individual to their personal reality.
A quote from Wikipedia:
I have two theories about how the Dominators work:
1: There’s a small but powerful generator inside that powers it.
2: It draws power from the user that it’s registered to. Since it feeds information directly into the brain, it probably uses the body’s bio-electricity as power from contact.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Re: the Dominators: It’s not hard to make a small, but very powerful, transient power source in something like that. I would say that there’s no chance it actually draws power from the wielder, since that would require a huge draw through a very resistive location.
But really, they don’t need a big generator. Something like high power capacitors would be more likely, especially given their mode of use.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thank you very much BB!
Hahah yeah I agree the world of mecha has gotten really good lately! Even though I hate Muv Luv with a burning passion I think their mecha designs are decent looking and yes Robotic;Notes timeline is very close to real life and it shows how the progress of robots is slow and cost so much money >.< Yeah we did forget Rinne huh? For the most part we tried to grab shows everyone was familiar with besides me with Rinne...I know none of us on the rec blogged Muv Luv outside of Anaaga and Infinite Stratos I think would probably fit the "robots/mechs" I think...or something... SAO/AW have interesting takes on virtual world exploration and controls! I definitely like the way AW takes it an extra step allowing you to basically freeze time and play hours and hours of games, but SAO takes it into a dark area with the theme of dying in both a game and real life...so both series have good and bad things going in terms of tech uses. Ahhh I love seeing how anime characters gain their special super powers! Hell I still love the first episode where Shu gets his powers in GC, but of course I have a huge love of Index/Railgun because their worlds are very interesting <3 Symphogear + singing while destroying the enemy = AWESOME Ahh yeah that explains why some characters are level zero and why some are level fives in that world! Yeah I figured all the tests in the series help unlock more power just take a look at the first few episodes of Railgun? Misaka fires her attack into a pool just to test the power xD Yeah you are probably right about the Dominator power source I was just trying to be funny muhahahaha~
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There’s definitely a difference in ‘mech’ series between something like Rinne no Lagrange and Total Eclipse. In Rinne no Lagrange, the Ovids were, in all honesty, just a Magnetic Plot Device. They held very little significance in and of themselves except to highlight the special nature and character of Madoka, Lan, and Muginami. The show wasn’t interested in their technology at all, just that they were there and that they were powerful.
I think TE goes a little farther, based as it is on the efforts to actually develop the TSFs. Unfortunately, it barely goes into the technology behind them.
Infinite Stratos actually does spend a lot of time on the technologies that go into the IS, especially in the LNs. Much of it is in the service of learnin’ up Ichika to fight different people, but it actually does more explanation. Unfortunately that show is weighed down by the boat anchor that is Orimura Ichika.
Finally, regarding the actual physics of giant robots, I might have linked this before, but it’s relevant and worth a look here: Stomp, don’t Sprint!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Initially the TSFs in Muv-Luv were terrible (Stacks o’ Boxes) but they do seem to look better now. The Raptors look kinda neat, but none of them match Yui’s Yellow Takemikazuchi.
That said, I still think the heads on them are stupid from a technical standpoint. If you put the pilot in the torso, why do you have a head? Solely for anthropomorphic considerations.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Infinite Stratos… the mechs that only girls could use but one man could. Does the light novel ever explain the reason why? Anyways, no man cockblocks his own self better than Ichika.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
pretty good podcast…i learned a lot of stuff
and
in SAO there was a group of developers it’s not really mentioned in the anime