PersonaLog #2: Thoughts on the End of Podtaku

Disclaimer:  This segment of PersonLog does not reflect the opinions of the site as a whole and was created for the editor to express his biased opinions on the subject at hand.  Also, these are kinda wishy-washy, as I kinda just type as I go along, so this isn’t a polished article in any way and contains my raw thoughts, and nothing else.  Ok?  Ok.

Sunday, January 10th, 2016, approx. 11:00 p.m. EST, I was lying in my bed, refusing to get a wink of sleep, which isn’t necessarily a grand thing to do considering that I have an early class the morning after.  I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, when a message from Podtaku caught my eye:

“What the fuck?”, I thought to myself, believing it to be some sort of early April Fool’s joke craftily designed by Holden and Gigguk to troll its fans when, in reality, they were preparing for a grandiose return.

But, as I watched the 55 or so minutes of basically every remaining member of the show giving out their testimonies on the death of the podcast, I slowly came to the realization that this isn’t them trolling or whatever.

It was real.

The era of Podtaku has come to an end.

So, welcome everyone to my second PersonaLog.  I personally didn’t think one would come out so soon after the first one, nor did I think that I would make one pertaining on this topic.  This is very much a spur-of-the-moment thing, and I want to express my two-cents on what has happened.

For any of you not in the know, and believe me when I say that I feel sorry for you guys who aren’t in the know, quite simply Podtaku is an anime podcast hosted by 4 amazing YouTube anime reviewers that started as a little one-off thing back 3 years ago, but has since released more than 60 episodes (including J-Taku, its subsidiary) and has become a part of the YouTube anime community as a whole.  Its cast originally included Holden, from Holden Reviews, Gigguk from AnimeZone, Jeanne, from xdisturbedjeans/AnimeAppraisal, and Arkada,  from Glass Reflection.  After being active for more than a year, it created a smaller, similar version called J-Taku, which included a whole bunch of other amazing anime YouTubers to tackle other topics not generally discussed in Podtaku, as well as for consistencies sake .

However, what should’ve been a more consistent channel suddenly became a channel on hiatus for 8 months.  They did return more recently, however.   It never really came back to its former glory (in my opinion), but it was still something and fans have awaited their return.

And then they decided to kill the show for good.

I will admit, it was a definite shock for me.  “They were just about to make their grand comeback why would they end now?” is what swam in my head for the rest of the night that I saw that news.  It didn’t help that the video they released concerning the end of the channel consisted of the current members sighing heavily, looking down with a melancholic look in their faces, and just generally looking very beaten and downtrodden.

Essentially, what the members thought was pretty much what I thought as well:  they were shocked and wished that it didn’t have to come to this.

I was angry.  I was confused.  I was a little bit depressed in knowing that this podcast that I loved so much, that has been a huge part of my being the anime fan that I am today, has ended.

That was last night as I watched the video.

But now I have cleared my head and have further pondered about it.

I still feel sort of depressed and still hoped that it was just a joke, but now that I think about it, I do understand the reasoning behind its end.  It can’t be helped, and ultimately, I respect the decision of everyone in the podcast, as I am sure that it was ridiculously difficult to make and comply to this decision, seeing as how important it was not only to the fans, but to the members of the podcast especially.

I don’t want to dwell too much on this sad part of history.

Rather, I just want to do one thing.

I want to thank them all, every single member of Podtaku and J-Taku.

I would make a “Top Moments” list, but I feel that there are just too many bright , funny and insightful moments that make this podcast so great (not to mention how I have to scour every single one of the podcasts, and that would take a couple of years to do).  Every single member of the podcast deserve the praise that they get for having great chemistry, fantastic insight on anime, and just being overall damn hilarious.

I started watching/listening to Podtaku during 10th grade.  I saw it on YouTube one time (can’t remember what episode it was) and I thought that, since I was working aimlessly on photoshop anyways, I might as well listen as I worked on my Andy Warhol project.

Needless to say, I was hooked.  I would have a constant smile on my face and would giggle uncontrollably from time to time (much to the worry of my classmates sitting beside me).  Ever since then, Podtaku has been kinda like my working song, if that makes sense.  It made doing work much more fun, or at least bearable.

I would listen to the group exclaiming “IT’S SHIT”, while washing the dishes or some other chore.

I would snicker at Gigguk’s sex analogies to watching seasonal anime as I worked on Google SketchUp.

I would ponder to their thoughts on the Fate/Zero dub and family-friendly bestiality on my way to school on my mp3.

I would understand the hype surrounding shows such as Kara no Kyoukai, Steins;Gate, Fate/Zero, Baccano, and Berserk.

And so much more, I can go on and on and on.

But, most importantly, Podtaku was a group of people that I can talk to about anime.  Right when I started watching anime was when I discovered this podcast, and I would frantically go and watch a bunch of shows mentioned so that I could get what the 4 of them were talking about at the time (i.e. Clannad, Haruhi, Steins;Gate, and Gurren Lagann, to name a few).

I’ve never met a group of people since who would talk about the medium so zealously and with the perfect mix of class and bullshit, and I love them to bits for that.  In a way, the show also helped me with confidence issues for some reason (it was probably me trying to mimic Holden’s bombastic casanova-ness, Gigguk’s sarcastic wit, Arkada’s class, and Jeanne’s…uhhh……Jeanne-ness????).  I was able to be more open about my love for anime and consequently am able to talk with more zeal myself.  For that, I am eternally grateful.

I may not have known ANY of the cast of Podtaku (and I would have LOVED to meet them all at some point in time).  I might not have always gotten what they talked about or agreed with necessarily ALL of their opinions (looking at you, Adolescence Upon an Incline).  Hell, I might not have listened to EVERY SINGLE Podtaku in recent times.

But what is certain is that Podtaku has, and always will be, a part of my otaku life, and I know it sounds cheesy and I know that I might be making this a bigger deal than it really is, but I am, as I said, eternally grateful for everything that this podcast, and all of its members, have done not only for me personally, but for the anime community as a whole.

So, to Holden, Gigguk, Arkada, Jeanne, and every single member of Podtaku and J-taku:

Thank you all, and I look forward to all that you do in the future, whatever and wherever it may be.

It is sad that they got to go like this.  It is too sudden, too oddly-timed, too painful.  But, as the great blond-haired Casanova himself said:

“It must rain for flowers to grow.  

Today, it rains…”

…and it’s a terrible day for rain.

And with that, I bid you all adieu.

Until next time, this has been Ken, for thebuttonsmashers.com Anime Reviews.

And I’ll see you all in the future.