From: Jchan@Swallow.demon.co.uk (Jonathan Weeks) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.info Subject: Animejin #7 Date: 23 Dec 1994 15:13:57 -0500 ---------- cut here -------------------------------- cut here ------------ * * * ANIMEJIN * * * Issue 7, January 1995 Internet filtered version All articles contained in this document are copyright their respective authors. Permission is granted to reproduce any articles herein for non-profit purposes only, provided that the articles remain intact, the authors are correctly credited, and TWO copies of the relevent publication are received by Animejin. This document contains the text portions only of Animejin 7. Articles sourced from the Internet have been omitted in this version. The un-cut version of this file is available by e-mail request from the address below. For a complete printed copy of any issue, send 1 pound (UK) or US$3.00 cash (everywhere else) for each copy to Animejin, stating your name and address and which issue(s) you require. All comments, suggestions and submissions will be gratefully received. Address all correspondence to: Animejin, 65 The High, Streatham High Road, London SW16 1EY UK or Jchan@swallow.demon.co.uk - Jonathan Weeks (editor) ------------------------------ - C O N T E N T S - [1] News [2] BD Expo Report by Laurent Gaillac [3] D-Contaminate Reports from Birmingham's 3rd anime con by Jim McLennan and Steve Whitcher [4] D.N.A.^2 review by Peter Evans [5] Reviews [6] The Anime Shoppers Guide to London compiled by Dave Cotterill [7] Were are we now? by Steve Whitcher ------------------------------ [1] - NEWS - Manga Entertainment An interview in the latest issue of Animerica with Manga Entertainment's US president Marvin Gleicher has caused widespread alarm amongst fans, as he confirmed their commitment to a mass-market dubbed product. After much wailing by fans, this was followed up by reassurances that Manga will be offering subtitled releases as well as the dubs. Meanwhile, Manga UK are celebrating the sale of their 1,000,000th video cassette. To mark the event, a party for Manga Club members was held in London on 22nd November. The Channel 4 program Moviewatch attended the event, recording footage for a item on Manga's films. February sees the launch of Manga Heroes, a new comic from Manga Publishing. The first issue will feature the comic version of the movie Timecop, and will have 64 full colour pages for 1.95. Gazing into this month's crystal ball reveals the following video release schedule: December: Guyver 9, Cyber City Oedo 3: Blood Lust, AD Police 1: Boomer Madness, Genocyber 1 January: Guyver 10, AD Police 2: Paradise Loop, Genocyber 2, Legend of the Kings 1 February: Guyver 11, AD Police 3: I Want Medicine, Genocyber 3, Legend of the Kings 2, Ninja Scrolls, Crying Freeman 5 & 6 March: Guyver 12, Legend of the Kings 3, Gokuu: Midnight Eye 1, Macross Plus 1, Dominion 3, Wings of Honneamise April: Legend of the Kings 4, Gokuu: Midnight Eye 2, Macross Plus 2, Dominion 4 Ninja Scrolls turns out to be Jubei the Wind Ninja, a samurai drama from Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Legend of the Kings remains a mystery. The only other Manga acquisition I have found out about is Macross 7, a new TV series that has started in Japan in October. Kiseki Films Nothing tremendously exciting to report from Kiseki this month: January: Starblazers vol. 3, Return of the Overfiend 3 (sub), Ambassador Magma vol. 5, Adventure Duo 2 (dub), Robotech vol. 3 February: M. D. Geist (dub), Macross: Remember Love (sub), Return of the Overfiend 4 (sub) March: Robotech vol. 4, Starblazers vol. 4, Plastic Little (dub) Western Connection WC's next releases have been put back till January (Devil Hunter Yokho 1, Ushio and Tora vol. 1, Salamander 1 and Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy). The Devil Hunter Yokho release will be accompanied by a set of DHY miniatures, from Excelsior Castings, the same company that produced the Bubblegum Crisis miniatures for Anime Projects. Pioneer Pioneer have reported sales of Tenchi Muyo and Moldiver to be better than expected. Their next releases are scheduled for February 13th, and will consist of the final volumes of Tenchi Muyo and Moldiver plus the first two volumes of Green Legend Ran, all for 12.99 each. Anime Projects Urusei Yatsura TV series volumes 3 and 4 have been delayed until December due to trouble with the BBFC. A new rule has been introduced stating that the title on the cassette box has to appear at the beginning of the tape, something that the UY TV tapes don't have. 8 seconds of nunchaku wielding by one of Lum's guards has also been removed from volume 4 ("it's an illegal weapon"). UY Movie 6 will be released at the same time. US News AnimEigo The Urusei Yatsura TV series is definitely being dubbed into English. A preview tape was on show at the AnimeEast convention in the US recently, which generated a broadly positive response. The UY TV LD box set has been delayed until January due to a faulty master tape. Spending all their time on dubbing has left AnimEigo with nothing much in the way of new titles. Their only scheduled new release is Rupan III: The Fuma Conspiracy in February. They have acquired, but not scheduled, the rights to Baoh, and You're Under Arrest! Dark Horse/Studio Proteus Ghost in the Shell by Masumune Shirow will start an eight issue run in March. The colour pages will be in it, but the 'yacht scene' is being redrawn by Shirow, as he was not happy with the original. The new pages will be in the translated edition, and in later reprints in Japan. The Appleseed Databook is to be collected into one volume, including some stuff that didn't make it into the first release. Also promised in the future are a second series of Oh My Goddess, the long awaited resumption of 3x3 Eyes, and Gun Smith Cats by Kenichi Sonoda. Other recent/upcoming US releases Angel of Darkness, Subtitled, $34.95, AD Vision. Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, Subtitled, 2 episodes per tape for $29.95, AD Vision. Demon City Shinjuku, Subtitled LD, $39.99, US Manga Corps. Gall Force 2: Destruction, Subtitled LD, $34.99, USMC. Gall Force: Earth Chapters, Subtitled, $29.95, USMC. Godmars, Subtitled, $24.95, The Right Stuf International. Heroic Legend of Arislan 3&4, Subtitled, $29..95, USMC. Kekko Kamen, Subtitled, 2 episodes per tape for $29.95, AD Vision. U-Jin Brand, Subtitled LD, $34.99, USMC. USMC will also be releasing La Blue Girl, Go Shogun, Invasion High School, Tale Of Genji, Cybernetics Guardian, Sohryuden, Akai Hayate, and Legend Of Lemnear over the course of 1995. The first episodes of Record of Lodoss War will be released on 7th March. Pioneer LDCA have added The Hakknden, Le-Hazard and Tenchi Muyo 2 to their list of titles for 1995. ------------------------------ [3] D-Contaminate Jim McLennan: At the risk of alienating Birmingham readers, I would just like to say that the city is a boil which deserves to be wiped off the face of the Earth. Previous trips there have been remarkable for both armed robberies and the unpleasantness of some inhabitants, whose surly and aggressive nature puts Londoners to shame. The latest atrocity to come from this city is being near-mugged by vagrants for your fast food, an experience which befell four of us in town on Friday night. I now have a suggestion what to do with all those unwanted nuclear bombs: drop 'em on Brum. End of rant! A new location for D-cont this year, the Grand. And very posh looking it was too, with a main video room you could park a spaceship in, and three hundred anime fans scattered throughout the building, plus at least one sad individual who phoned the organisers asking if "Akira 2" was going to be shown, and enquiring about "Manga flick-knives". Let's hope he was joking. As ever, I wasn't there to watch anime; I can sit in a dark room at home and do that, though I unfortunately don't have a state-of-the-art, rear-mounted, mega-beast video-projector like the convention had, which was probably capable of showing anime on the face of the moon. I was there to meet friends, splutter furiously at the outrageous bar prices, and sell large amounts of junk. The con rated highly on all three categories; I'll keep nameless the member of the committee who insisted on first choice of the dodgy Japanese mags... except to say he was also the one who complained loudly later, when the dealer's room unofficially opened on Friday evening! Saturday night proved a major blast, with the first masque I'd actually got to see (missed them at previous cons). Highlight there was a scarily cute Gally - I use the word "scarily" as it was actually a bloke... This was followed by some of the most anticipated items in the video program, the subtitled "Dragon Half" and "Plastic Little" (now known as "Silicone Little"). Unfortunately, the ring main for the video projector staged a walk-out at this display of pulchritude, which prompted one committee member to stage a vicious, unprovoked attack on a poor, defenceless marble pillar. I did the decent thing, and hid... Saturday was my habitual all-nighter, with a small but perfectly formed crowd enjoying everything from Jackie Chan to Godzilla. Mind you, I'm not so sure about the latter: I dozed off myself while it was on, and woke up to find the film had finished, and we were well into the next item on the tape ("Michael Moore's TV Nation"!), but no-one seemed to have noticed... Still, as far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy to sit and watch my favourite films on a nice big screen, even if no-one else was there! Sunday proved a slightly moist squib, as ever. Thanks to the vagaries of British Rail ticketing, I had to leave just after the official close, but by all accounts I missed nothing. Overall, a good con - at least, I'm still spending my dealer's profit, two weeks later! - though it was sad and annoying to hear there had been some security problems with two thefts and an act of vandalism over the weekend. Such are perhaps the penalties of a city centre location, or perhaps, such are the penalties of holding the convention in Birmingham at all! Steve Whitcher: I didn't look forward to The Birmingham con this year, mainly to the absence of some of my best anime friends (And yes that does mean you Sando and Wayne). However I did go along and had a great time. Now, I didn't actually see any anime over the weekend, I strolled into some of the video rooms a couple of times, but I guess I only saw about 5 minutes of anime in total. The dealers room was a bit disappointing, not overly large and didn't have the selection of AD4. So what did I do at the convention? Well, mainly talk to people, and not just about anime, but the overlapping subjects of anthropomorphics and computers. The type of people that are in anime are also the type of people into furries, and computers, I guess that this is because they are all part of the "Nintendo generation" and like always it is very nice to meet liked mind people. The non-video programme was excellent, I never have understood why these aren't better support by bigger audiences, but the few people that do turn up to the panels do enjoy them, and I always learn a lot. The Internet panel was particularly good, and I look forward to meeting some of the new recruits on Furry.Muck. The hotel was much bigger than previous cons, and this had its good, as well as its bad points. There was plenty of space to find quiet cosy places to sit down and chat to friends, but also it was harder to find people, and the con had less of a friendly feel than AD4. There were quite a few new faces at the con, which helped to balance the lack of old friends. To sum up I thought it was a good con, which satisfied my con requirements, but that is more to do with people and friends than how the con is organized. However Dave and the rest of the committee all deserve a big pat on the back, for what seemed to be a very well organized smooth running convention. ------------------------------ [5] Reviews Cyber City Oedo File 1: Virtual Death, File 2: Psychic Trooper Manga Video 9.99 ea. Cyber City Oedo is MEL s first attempt to move into the Cyberpunk market. Cyber City Oedo which I hadn t heard of before, is a classic Cyberpunk story with a twist. Set in 2808 where the Cyber police have a major problem in controlling the crime rate. The police have decided to draft dangerous cyber- criminals into the police force. If these new recruits are successful in completing dangerous missions, their sentences are reduced, but if they fail the high-explosive collars they wear are detonated. I was particularly impressed with Virtual Death, where the mass-murderer Sen- Goku and his two colleagues are sent to rescue 50,000 people that are trapped in a skyscraper. People have been trapped because the security computer has been hacked into by a person or persons unknown, and the police are afraid that they are going to blow up the skyscraper. It is a pity that MEL have decided to use an excessive amount of swear words, as I found this distracting in a title strong enough in plot and atmosphere, to carry itself. The second tape Psychic Trooper although lacking some of the sparkle of the first OVA, is still a worthwhile purchase for Cyberpunk fans. The story of the three 'recruits' continues in a story reminiscent of Robocop. Gogul discovers that a covert military operation is illegally obtaining human corpses and using them to make psychic cyborg fighting machines. Gogul has been specially selected to 'test' a cyborg, but who will win? Although I suspect that this title will be bought by the gore buying market that MEL has created, for me it is not just your average blood and guts type anime. I thought that the plot using dangerous killers to protect the public was an interesting, thought provoking concept. I was also surprised that MEL kept Benten as a bloke, because although anime (as any fan knows), is full of effeminate men. Benten with his long red nails and flowing blue hair will be perceived by the MEL market as homosexuality personified. I mention this because it is the first time (to my knowledge) that a pretty bloke has cropped up in a UK title, and I am interested to see what the UK market will make of it. Cyber City makes a great addition to the pool of anime available in the UK. It is a MEL title that I can honestly stay that I have enjoyed, and have already watched more than once already. 8.5 out of 10 - Steve Whitcher Genocyber Stage 1: A New Lifeform, Stage 2: Vajranoid Attack Manga Video, 45/23mins, 9.99 Another in MEL's 'Cyberpunk Collection'. This has plenty of gore to keep Manga's target audience happy. The animation and character designs are slick and up-to-date, with a smattering of live-action and computer generated special effects adding some nice touches. The plot borrows heavily from Akira, with psychic kids, government experiments and mass destruction; but the whole seems much less than the sum of its parts in this case. The story exists only to loosely string together a series of set pieces, that pander to every gore-cliche you could want. This is definitely anime-by-numbers tailor made for Manga fans everywhere. - Jonathan Weeks Green Legend Ran vols. 1 & 2 Pioneer, 45mins ea., 12.99 This is Pioneer's third title to be released after Tenchi Muyo and Moldiver. In contrast to the comedy of the first two, GLR is a drama set in an alternate world whose surface has been drained of all water by six mysterious aliens that have fallen from space. The aliens provide the only source of water for the population, and this source is monopolised by a cult-like group called the 'Rodoists' who battle against the 'Hazzard' faction who wish to free the water supply for the masses. The main character is a teenage orphan boy named Ran who longs to join Hazzard so he can avenge his mother's death at the hands of the Rodoists. The production values of GLR are not quite up to the standards of Pioneer's previous releases, but this is made up for by its excellent design and attention to detail. Despite the odd plot cliche, this is solid drama with plenty to recommend it. - Jonathan Weeks Moldiver vol. 1 Pioneer, 60mins, 12.99 When asked to review this new release from Pioneer Video I willingly agreed as I thought that the opportunity to release some serious anger on a particularly crap piece of anime would be surely welcome. But NO!!! AAGGGH!! My plans were thwarted. This new piece of animation that was to be the punchbag of my literary fisticuffs actually managed to piss me off. Because it was good. I enjoyed it (hanging my head in shame). Okay, it's no Crying Freeman or Wind of Amnesia (i.e. anime with a plot and sense of realism), but as an example of honest to goodness fun that anyone can enjoy, it holds its head high and does itself proud. The immediate impressions of this film make you notice influences from both Project A-Ko and Catgirl: Nuku-Nuku. Plot lines: A young genius discovers a way of developing a suit with almost invincible and certainly astounding powers with which he can aid mankind against a bad guy who must have been a hybrid between My Miyagi from Karate Kid and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. I only have two gripes about these episodes - A teen pop idol whose fashion sense would make even Barbie puke, and the theme music. All in all I must admit that I enjoyed this humour filled (if only slightly superficial) new release (even the irritatingly happy ending). 7/10 - Matthew Bowdery The Wings of Honneamise Manga Theatrical, 124mins At first, I was not sure what to make of this. Whilst there's mecha aplenty, it's not 'Guns and Robots'; there's an attempted rape, but it's not a skin-flick. Indeed, it doesn't fall into any obvious category, so maybe it's nothing other than a film telling a story using whatever means are necessary. Why am I surprised at this in an anime when I wouldn't be otherwise? Cultural conditioning, I presume. So, what is the story? Shirotsugu (Shiro) wants to be a jet fighter pilot but gets put in the Royal Space Force, a dead-end staffed by losers but lead by an idealist. Shiro must give a purpose to his career, his life, the Space Force and ultimately the human race but he needs help, and that's one commodity, amid treason, conspiracy, espionage and sabre-rattling, that's in very short supply. Where that help comes from and whether its has a positive result I'll leave you to find out by watching the film. Suffice to say, this is the most singular anime I've yet seen. Whilst I didn't find it great entertainment and I'd rent rather than buy it, it's worth watching for its individuality alone. - Marlon A. Seton AD Police vols. 1 & 2 Manga Video, 26mins ea, 6.99 MV have done there best to confuse us with ADP, by using the fact that this is a spin off from Bubblegum Crisis to promote it, but changing the names of characters so that it no longer fits! The setting is Mega Tokyo before the creation of the Knight Sabers, with only the AD Police around to deal with renegade boomers. The stories centre around a young Leon McNichol, the only character here that appears in BGC. Episode one owes a lot to Bladerunner; many of the scenes are almost directly copied from the movie, although the overall plot is original. MV have spiced up the dialogue as usual, with Genna Malt making more than just the one pass at Leon in this version. Episode two is more faithful, though only because the sexual innuendo was present in the original this time. - Jonathan Weeks Robotech vols. 1 - 3 Kiseki Films, 90mins ea, 12.99 This is the one TV series that got more people into anime than any other. Unfortunately, it's never been broadcast in the UK, and these tapes are the first chance we've had to get a good look at the whole series. Robotech was created by combining three Japanese TV series together to made one 65 episode series. The first 26 episodes are actually the original Macross TV series, one of the most popular anime of all time in Japan that is still spawning sequels to this day. The plot goes like this: A mysterious alien space ship crash lands on Earth. Using the technology found on board, Earth develops 'Robotechnology' and rebuilds the alien ship. As episode one starts the ship, now dubbed the 'Super Dimensional Fortress' is about to be launched when a fleet of alien ships materialises and attacks. A war between Earth and the aliens ensues throughout the rest of the series. The emphasis throughout is on the character rather than the action, as the follow the fortunes of rookie pilot Rick Hunter and other members of the UN Space Force. Worth it for the nostalgia trip alone. - Jonathan Weeks ------------------------------ [7] Anime Fandom - Just where are we? by Steve Whitcher I have been involved in anime-fandom for about 3 years. I have seen the rise of Manga Video, Anime UK the UK anime market develop. Now that I am about to leave anime fan publications, I have decided to look back at fandom and what has happened during my time. I can remember a time when fans were happy to go to hunt round shops for butchered kiddie cut anime, and the fan's main moan was about cutting anime for a kids market, at the time fan-copied anime were 27th generation copies of stuff filmed in wobbly vision (well it seemed like that). You had to guess who it was and also what they said, because of the very poor resolution and no subtitles or dubbing in a language that you understood. What changed this has been Manga Video and the dual standard VCR, and a lot of work by the fans. When Manga Video started to release titles like Project A-Ko and Dominion and the fans all WOWED, and cheered (OK well almost). People also started to get dual standard VCRs and imported US subtitled tapes. And the subtitled vs dubbed debate started. At first everyone was happy, wobbly vision was to be a thing of the past, but soon things weren't quite as rosy as we first thought. I think that this was partially due to the marketing policy of Manga Video, and also fans becoming more educated into the wide range of anime available in Japan. I will not enter into the debate, suffice it to say that Manga did not release what the anime fans wanted them to, or in their favourite format. But whatever people say, Manga has raised public awareness of Anime, and some say that bad publicity is better than no publicity, but this is for you to decide. But we have some well educated anime fans now, who were introduced into the genre by MEL products. And so fans could buy UK released anime but not the anime that they wanted, but the dual standard videos meant that we had easy access to a large pool of anime via the US and even Japan. Following MELs success, companies like Anime Projects, Kiseki and Western Connection have started to release more fan-orientated anime. The companies releasing subtitled material have found a certain amount of success in keeping costs down, to be able to make a profit, by selling fewer copies to a largely fan market. Anime has become much more popular in the UK but I believe that it is a bit of a fad, which will die down, but when it does fandom will be much bigger than it used to be before MEL. And I feel that people like Anime Projects and Western Connection will continue to release subtitled anime, while people like MEL will move on to the new fad (Whatever that may be). With people like Pioneer joining the market to make secondary profits in foreign countries where MEL has developed a market, the future for anime in the UK looks good. Today even at work people have heard about anime which certainly wasn't the case while I was at University. Unfortunately quite a few fans can't handle the increase in popularity of anime, now wearing an Akira T-shirt doesn t signify that you are an avid anime fan, and I can understand this. When it was small it was ours, now it is in the hands of commercial companies more worried about profit than how wonderful anime is. The reasons that I am leaving fan-publications are complex and related to the developments in the UK market. The first reason is time, reviewing takes a lot of time, and with more and more titles to review, and more fanzines to write for it is becoming too much. I have a lot of new projects that I would like to devote time to, these include Anthropomorphics-fandom, Internet, some personal stuff, and some undisclosed projects. Reviewing doesn't make you any friends either, and the more titles the bigger the problem, as it is very easy to either upset the producers or your fellow anime friends. I have done both and when you upset people you care about its time to look closely at what you are doing. Fans, being fans love their anime, and I have trodden on a few toes, which has caused me a fair amount of grief. I have certainly found myself being attacked for what I have thought of titles, and also my views of the UK market. I have always written what I have thought, rather than what people wanted me to write, so enough is enough. The UK market has now become developed, and it is time for me to move on and also back. It's going to be fun getting back to my roots, watching stuff that I want to watch. At the moment I get sent a stack of tapes to watch, that I have to rather than want to watch. It will also be great to be able to write more letters, and explore the Internet. It will also give me more time to importing and convert the minority interest titles, that would never be released in the UK commercially, but are wonder pieces of anime. Hopefully some of you reading this will take my place as a reviewer, as I bow out, but you will need a thick skin to earn your videos each month. If no-one takes my place then my editors will have a problem, but I have done my turn, now its time for yours. I will still continue to review the odd title, and now and again you may see an article by me. But otherwise farewell. ------------ cut here -------------------------- cut here ---------------- -- Jonathan Weeks Half man, half fanzine editor Jchan@swallow.demon.co.uk -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by Steve Pearl- Moderator, rec.arts.anime.info Email submissions to anime-info@remus.rutgers.edu and questions about the newsgroup to anime-info-request@remus.rutgers.edu