Genre Media Review show Country United States Home station Japan-A-Radio | Running time about 120 min. Language(s) English | |
Hosted by Michael D. Garcia, Jesse Barredo, "Ten-chan," "Teri" | ||
Unwound was a talk show in the United States, produced by MiS Productions and broadcast on the internet radio station, Japan-A-Radio. It is hosted by Jesse Barredo and Michael Garcia, and is primarily a talk show covering Japanese animation and related events, along with interviews of industry authors, artists, and voice actors. It was originally billed as an old-school/new-school debate, with Barredo representing the newer generation of fans, and Garcia representing the older generation.
Contents
The content of each program varies from season to season, as old segments may be discarded in favor of new ones. However, the format remains the same: reviews of anime and other commentary. Every fifth episode since its first broadcast has been focused entirely on 'classic' anime titles, referred to as an 'Old School' show.
Hosts
The current hosts of the show are:
Segment hosts:
Former co-hosts:
History
Both Barredo and Garcia worked as convention staff for the Japantown Anime Faire (in 2003 and 2004); Garcia was the convention's operations director while Barredo was the video programming director. Anime being the topic of discussion before and after staff meetings, the pair would distract from convention planning by discussing the latest products airing in Japan. The tempo and humor involved inspired the radio program. As Project 760 was producing the Faire, it was a natural progression. MiS Radio Networks was offered the pilot and they purchased ten episodes.
Season One
Unwound began broadcasting on June 26, 2004 with episode 101. In its original format, it was a half-hour in length and was almost entirely scripted, and did not use the unscripted format until its fourth episode. Also, it did not move from 30 to 60 minutes until the eleventh episode. At the time, it was produced as a Project 760 Production, a radio and television production house based in San Francisco, California. The first season lasted twenty episodes, and included interviews with the editors of Animerica Magazine, Macross Compendium author Egan Loo, and author Patrick Macias. The show also recorded while at Anime Expo in Anaheim, California, and at the Season's Screenings event at the Japan Center in San Francisco, California. The last three episodes of the season were the first to include a live audience during recording.
Season Two
Keeping with the live audience feel of the show, Unwound began recording episodes at San Francisco State University's AnimeFX club screenings. During the AnimeFX recordings, however, Project 760 and Garcia were reportedly unhappy with one another and decided to part ways. Instead of retaining the show's brand, Project 760 released any ownership of the show to Garcia, who then joined MiS Productions. The show is currently owned by Garcia and produced by MiS in-house. After the spring semester completed and there were no more recordings, Unwound broadcast live from the MiS Studios in San Jose, California. Jenn Lee also joined the hosting team full-time, previously serving as audience moderator. Convention visits during the second season occurred at Sakura-Con in Seattle and Anime Expo once more. Although the season's episode order was twenty-five, the show suddenly stopped broadcasting new episodes after the seventeenth on September 18, 2005. Reasons for the unannounced hiatus were unclear, but it turned out to be that Garcia's primary occupation was interfering with the broadcast times. Japan-A-Radio announced the end of the season weeks later.
Season Three
The third season began broadcasting on September 24, 2006. Changes to the format include an expansion of the program to two hours, as well as introducing new co-host "Ten-chan" (who replaced Jenn Lee). The first half of the show discusses recent anime news events (by reading headlines from Anime News Network) and discussing the impact those headlines have on anime culture through the eyes of a fan. The second half is divided into the standard review of the chosen anime series for the week, much like the format of the previous two seasons. Recent episodes have included two convention reports (Ani-Magic and Yaoi-Con). Egan Loo has yet to make an appearance on the show, in spite of the advance advertising, and this has been addressed on each show as being due to technical difficulties in orchestrating call-ins to the program.
The show took a scheduled four-week hiatus after December 23, 2007 and was scheduled to return to its broadcast schedule in the middle of January, however, the show did not return. On January 28, 2007, Garcia wrote that the show's primary audio server had failed and they were seeking a replacement. No further news was released by the show, and inquires to the station were redirected to the show's producer. Another blog entry in late June announced the resignation of host Jesse Barredo, and possible drastic changes coming soon. No date has yet been set to finish or end the third season, but replacement hosts were being sought to continue the show's production. Additionally, it is speculated that Garcia's duties as a host are coming to an end, as his title on the forums has changed from "Co-Host/Executive Producer" to simply "Executive Producer."
Season Four
On July 14, 2008, the Unwound blog announced that the fourth season is being organized and new hosts would be announced shortly. The tentative date given within the post only mentions September (presumably 2008), with no further information provided. The date came and went with no announcement until December 14, when Garcia announced the recording date for the new season will commence on January 10, 2009. Season Four finished on December 20, 2009.