The Chibi Project

For several months, we've been taking anime bootlegs and fansubs off of people's hands with the promise of destroying them. That time has come.

At Bakuretsu Con 2008, PatrickD used a Black & Decker Varible Speed Jigsaw to cut his way through a handful of bootleg DVDs in front of a live audience. The remaining DVDs as well as the pieces of the destroyed DVDs and all the packaging will eventually be destroyed by fire so that nothing remains.

Destroyed bootleg DVDs include Cowboy Bebop, Chobits, InuYasha, and Candidate for Goddess.

Eventually, we will tackle VHS tapes as well.

Following the destruction, everyone present was invited to have some cake to celebrate our 20th episode.

Greg Ayres, a voice actor known for speaking out against bootlegs and fansubs, agreed to discuss the issue in the intro for this episode. When you buy a bootleg or download a fansub, no money is going back to support the creators. As a result of the massive number of people downloading fansubs and never buying the DVDs, the anime industry is hurting. Please, do your part and buy your anime legally through reputable retailers. Thank you.

For this test, we needed a location where we could access railroad tracks. Although the Newtonville, MA commuter rail station was an option (it was where the first test on Chibi Moon was conducted), we decided to try a different kind of train. We opted for the MBTA Green Line and chose the Newton Centre station.

A few minutes later, a Type 7 trolley entered the station heading west (outbound). After stopping, the operator warned the Chibi Project team that we should not be standing so close to the rails with a video camera "or I'll have to radio it in." (As the train pulled to a stop, we were standing at the back of the platform...about 15 feet from the rails.) We decided it would be best to move to a new location.

We moved on to an undisclosed location on the MBTA's Green Line. With the tracks safe and clear, we placed our figure of Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion on the right track of a westbound train and waited a safe distance from the tracks.

It should be noted that this Shinji was originally a keychain. We unscrewed the hook and chain from his head prior to this experiment. "It looked stupid."

Within ten minutes, a trolley pulled into the station. By the time it pulled to the center of the platform, it has completely passed by the location where Shinji had been placed on the tracks. We waited for the train to roll out of the station before approaching the tracks.

Approaching the tracks, Shinji's body was found next to the rail that he had originally been resting on. His head was not attached. We found his head several yards down the track. It almost got overlooked because it was completely squished and barely recognizable.

After being run over by an MBTA trolley, only a few features of his head (an ear, eyes, and what might have been his mouth) are still recognizable. His body is mostly intact with only minor scrapes.

When it was finally over, Shinji's head exploded like the heads of many Evangelion fans.

Having heard about our live experiments at Anime Boston, The Chibi Project was invited to Nan Desu Kan 2004 to run Anime Unscripted and conduct a live Chibi Project experiment.

Fans of The Chibi Project had been asking for us to take on Dragonball Z for a while. This seemed like a good time.

A fan from the audience videotaped the experiment while PatrickD started cutting. The first cut was in the crotch area moving up to the chest. The first piece to come off was part of the green costume around his waist. With the front cut through completely, it just fell off. From there, cuts were made into his chest. Cutting into the chest wasn't doing much. Moving the Dremel back to the crotch, it didn't take long for the leg to come off.

With one leg missing, his waist was the next target. Made with rather thick plastic, it took a bit of effort but eventually loosened up and fell off.

The audience cheered as each limb came off. With time for the panel running short and the Dremel battery running low, it was time to wrap this up. The grand finale was his neck. Just a quick slice and his head popped off and rolled around on the table.

With the head falling to the table, the test was over. The fan who videotaped this experiment grabbed the green waist piece and returned to the audience. The extra heads and dragonballs that were included with the figure were tossed into the audience. The Chibi Project has kept all other pieces to display at future convention appearances.

The Chibi Project fights fire with fire. In the anime series Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars uses fire attacks to fight evil. She can dish it out, but can she take it? The Chibi Project decided to find out.

To accomplish this test, we enlisted the help of professional fire eater, fire breather, and bizarre magician, Brian Brushwood, best known for Scam School, a podcast from Revision3.

Brian built up a witch's pyre. While he and Jekka get the episode started, Patrick nailed Sailor Mars's feet to the top of the pyre.

After a short history of fire eating, Brian took a swig of charcoal lighter fluid. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! He then blew a giant fireball which ignited Sailor Mars atop the pyre.

Sailor Mars's legs began to melt and she bent backwards. Brian rescued her and pushed her forward. She ended up leaning forward until her torso melted away from her body and fell down the pyre. Shortly thereafter, her legs melted from her feet and fell to the ground.

After letting the fire burn for several minutes, the remaining fire (which had not been eaten) was extinguished with water.

Surprisingly, she is still somewhat recognizable. Although her clothing has mostly disappeared and her hair has melted to her face and body, her general shape is still fairly recognizable.

For this test, a little inventive preparation was required. Fireworks were easy enough to obtain, but how to hold Chii in position without become scientist flambe?

One of our honorary scientists, an auto mechanic from the Deep South, concocted a special device for holding Chii. He placed a metal bar on two stands over a wooden slab and then wired Chii to the bar with a thick, dangling wire. While wiring the doll, he observed that Chii was wearing no pants. We had nothing to do with that. We swear.

The "rocket" style fireworks launcher was placed directly underneath Chii. Note that the launcher advertised FLAMING BALLS. We were going to get a flaming ball all right, just not the type the manufacturer expected.

Prior to ignition, we squirted Chii with lighter fluid. We were only going to get once chance to perform this experiment, and we wanted to make sure it worked well. In retrospect, we may have used a little too much...

Our honorary scientist lit the fireworks and stepped back. The launcher shot numerous colored balls into the air and sprayed sparks while making gunshot-style noises.

Chii caught on fire immediately and began burning with such intensity that all scientists present were required to step back. The fireworks ran out of juice quickly. The doll did not, and burned on in a dramatic fashion for a number of minutes before collapsing from the dangling wire and continuing to smolder on the wooden platform.

After almost five minutes, Chii's flames finally died out. All that was left was a hardened, putrid-smelling black sludge on the wooden plank.

Despite her attraction to porn, Chii finds balls too hot to handle.

PatrickD of The Chibi Project conducted a live experiment at San Japan 1.5 on August 9, 2008. Botan of Yu Yu Hakusho was exposed to one of the oldest and most cruel forms of torture, being hung, drawn, and quartered.

The experiment began with kite string tied to each of Botan's limbs. The strings were pulled by a audience members. After much effort, none of the limbs would come loose.

PatrickD stepped on Botan, but still nobody could pull any limbs loose.

As a last resort, the audience members were told to abandon the strings and pull directly on her limbs. In the end, after a great amount of effort, Botan was quartered into four pieces.

At the end of the panel, PatrickD answered questions, took suggestions, and talked about some future testing.

After filling the panel room for our Chibi Project panel and live experiment at Anime Boston 2003, we knew we had to return to Anime Boston 2004 and we had to do something impressive. We knew taking a circular saw to a vibrating, plush Pikachu that we picked up at the AnimeOnDVD.com Christmas party would fit the bill.

We used duct tape on Pikachu's ears and feet to secure him to a piece of wood that was securely strapped to two chairs. The saw was plugged in and Anime Boston attendees in the front of the panel were asked to move back.

The circular saw was designed to cut through a thin piece of wood, not three inches of plush Pikachu belly. Considerable downward force had to be applied to the circular saw in order to compress Pikachu enough so that the saw would come in contact with the wood.

As the saw advanced through the yellow Pokemon's body, white stuffing shot out into the audience and all over the stage and floor. After one pass, Pikachu's guts had spilled out all over the stage and floor. The wooden board had only been partially cut. As the saw performed a second pass, it resulted in more carnage but still did not slice through the wooden board. It didn't take long for the third pass to cut through what was left of the board. Very little stuffing was left in Pikachu at this point.

This is what's left of Pikachu after being sliced in two by a circular saw. Most of the stuffing was sent soaring into the audience (where audience members happily ran forth and collected it for themselves.) The stuffing that remains is primarily the bits that got stuck to the duct tape. Pikachu is still recognizable, but he is in two parts.

After hurricanes began ramming up against one of The Chibi Project's team members on a regular basis in 2004, The Chibi Project staff began to discuss subjecting Chibi Moon to a hurricane test. Unfortunately, the short notice on which most hurricanes arrive made it difficult to mail the Chibi Moon figure in time. Ultimately, we decided to improvise with another figure.

Six hours before Hurricane Dennis was expected to make landfall, we found a Kuroneko figurine. Kuroneko, the annoying "Where's Waldo" character from Trigun, seemed like a perfect test subject. Let's face it -- who hasn't wanted to punt a cat at some point in their lives? So, armed with duct tape, we went outside and strapped the bastard to a tree branch.

A few hours later, Hurricane Dennis began pummeling the yard with 110 MPH winds and driving rain. Branches, fence parts, and small rodents were also airborne during this time.

By nightfall, the hurricane had died down to the level of a "normal" rainstorm. We ventured outside to discover that while some duct tape had survived, Kuroneko was long gone. Searches of the neighborhood -- conducted with the help of the children living nearby -- yielded no sign of the cat.

In episode 4, we stuck Sailor Venus in a potato cannon. After we blew her head off, we called it a day and packed up. Sailor Venus was put in a bag with a leftover potato and brought home...where we forgot about her for NINE MONTHS!

After discovering flies in the kitchen, we found the source: a rotting potato and Sailor Venus! The bag was immediately brought outside in the darkness and the horror was recorded using the nightshot mode. Sailor Venus was hosed off and cleaned up, except for the remaining maggots inside her head.

We're clearly bitter about not even being nominated for a Webby Award, but through a bit of bribing (and stealing of pants), we finally managed to get one of our own. Sure we didn't earn it, but it's ours! HA HA HA! Maybe this will get them to notice us for next year.

We talk about our upcoming appearances at PortConMaine, ConnectiCon, and San Japan. We also answer some e-mails and pimp our new DVDs!

What started out as a suggestion at last year's Chibi Project panel at Anime Boston grew into a full test at this year's panel. Chibi Moon is "tarred" using rubberized driveway crack sealer packaged in a caulking tube. After being covered in black caulk, she is "feathered". At the end of the podcast, The Chibi Project crew answer audience questions and reveal a new voice mail line.