tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87419236392712939792024-03-13T18:52:35.329-05:00Hokuto no FogieAfter losing fifteen year's worth of his life to gambling, strippers, booze and porn, a legend is resurrected, only to find the world has...changed. Yes, his kung fu is weak. But it is growing. And the world will soon tremble. Yes, it will tremble.RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-65078189304931284902010-03-07T00:56:00.003-06:002010-03-09T18:23:02.471-06:00Time Off to Count Cajuns!! Photo Fame Wears Lovely Shirts!!<div align="center"><br />
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This month is gonna be slow. I'm driving all over southwest Louisiana taking head counts for Uncle Sam so the state can figure out how many Representatives it stands to lose because of all the hurricanes. Assuming I don't fall into a swamp or get bitten by a rabid dog, everything should pick up come April. <br />
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The (badly reproduced) photo above is from Nasfic '85 in Austin Texas. As explained in the recent post about <em>Wicked City</em>, a Nasfic is the consolation prize America gets when the World Science Fiction Convention is awarded to the furriners "somewheres else" in the world. Suffice to say, it wasn't out of snobbery that I somehow managed to make both the Nasfics during the '80s while managing to miss every Worldcon, that's just the way it worked out. Flanking yours truly are Karen Helmer and Tommie Dunnam from the late, lamented SDF-Fort Worth, although the SDF-Forth worth didn't actually exist when the photo was taken. It was supposed to be an <a href="http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=235">EDC</a> (Earth Defense Command) panel on anime fandom, but none of the officers from Dallas could make it, so we pinch-hit for Derek, Meri and the rest. We were all technically members at the time, so I guess that made it okay. <br />
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The SDF-1 Super Fortress toy on the table is the original Japanese release and not the Matchbox Robotech version that came out later in the decade. This one had the (gasp) dangerous missiles that could hunt down your young child and force themselves down his or her throat until the tyke choked to death so of course it became public enemy number one on the Japanese PTA hit list. Or something. Anyway, there weren't a whole lot of them making the fan rounds on this side of the Pacific, so Tommy had to keep his eye on this puppy lest it find its way into some toy hoarder's collection and never be seen again. I don't think he ever let it out of arm's reach. I dunno much about the Yamato toy, that's more Steve Harrison's department...<br />
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The picture itself was printed in an issue of the Japanese <em>Animage</em> monthy anime magazine sometime in either late '85 or early 1986 (<span style="color: red;">actually March '87, per Jack Thielepape in the Comments below</span>). Fred Patten sent notes around to the various anime clubs letting us know that <em>Animage</em> was soliciting pictures for an article on American anime fandom and this was our contribution. Well, my contribution. The picture was taken by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jmtimages/">Jack</a> Thielepape. I don't even know if Karen or Tommie knew about it until the picture was printed in Japan. <em>Animage</em> was hard to come by over here at the time, so I know I never got a copy myself, though I did see someone else's later, which is how I knew they actually used it. <br />
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When looking at the picture, I couldn't help but notice I was wearing my <em>Return of the Jedi</em> tee. Sigh. What a way to be remembered, huh? I had the chance to buy a <em>Revenge of the Jedi</em> tee at a convention in Houston in the early '80s but didn't want to spend the outrageous amount they were asking for a so-called "collector's item." For all of you young 'uns who weren't around back then, the scuttlebutt was that Lucas was really using the latter as a working title. Well, you can see how creative George got, he just moved the "revenge" thing to the third film (which is actually the sixth) because "revenge" just isn't a jedi thing. But before he changed the title, there were people out there who probably made a fortune on bootleg t-shirts with the red, <em>Revenge of the Jedi</em> logo on it. Silly fanboys.<br />
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Anyway, I was still too young to care what the hell I looked like at comic book conventions back in the '80s, so I ran the gamut from geek to geekier to downright obnoxious. Most of that shit is loooooong gone now, but I still have a few.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NDuO8hybI/AAAAAAAAAYs/zRQcyRH8-Lg/s1600-h/Roberts+215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NDuO8hybI/AAAAAAAAAYs/zRQcyRH8-Lg/s400/Roberts+215.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">NERD CONVENTION FORMALWEAR, 1987</span><br />
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Now, normally, a sweatshirt is not something that immediately comes to mind when you think about stuff you wear at a convention. Unless, of course, you ran all-night video rooms at cons back in the '80s. Let me tell you, it was really, REALLY difficult to track down hotel personnel capable of and willing to adjust a thermostat at 3am in the morning. Luckily I had the Kasugi sisters to keep me warm. <br />
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Not to mention Kei and Yuri.<br />
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I remember when Mitsuyoshi sent me these. The price wasn't bad and I'd worn sweatshirts like forever, but man, I really didn't want to get these puppies dirty, 'cause I knew the washing machine would cause havoc, especially on the small <em>Catseye</em> text synopsis on the back. But there comes a time in every geek's life when you have to decide between the collector mentality and the sheer awesomeness that is walking into a room and having everyone try to read the microscopic crap on the back of your shirt without you catching them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NFe_s2O_I/AAAAAAAAAY8/VXeynvngGv0/s1600-h/Roberts+217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NFe_s2O_I/AAAAAAAAAY8/VXeynvngGv0/s400/Roberts+217.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div>You think I'm kidding when I say it was hard to get info on anime back in the day? That little bitty text was gold 'cause it was in English. Pretty good English too. Damn sad when the best description of a television show you can find comes from the back of a freakin' sweatshirt. But, that's just the way it was. BTW, I used that text in at least two zine articles. Hey, you do what you have to do.<br />
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One of the great joys of making a regular convention circuit was seeing familar faces every four or five months. In Texas, we had regular groups from all the larger cities show up at most of the major cons. The group from Texas A&M/College Station/Bryan in the '80s mainly orbited around Alex Botello, who sold models and such and thus bought at least one dealer's table at most of Larry Lankford's conventions. Since just about everyone from that area knew Alex (he'd been setting up at cons for years), they'd use his tables as kind of a "home base" to store their stuff and take a seat when tired of wandering around. Among them was an exceptionally lovely woman named Margaret, who was majoring in marine geology at A&M, but also did some absolutely amazing t-shirt artwork on the side. From talking to her at length, I discovered she loved <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> (gorgeous, smart, talented, AND with exquisite taste in anime - yes, boys, they ARE out there), and one con she totally surprised me with a white shirt with Kenshiro on it. I can't exactly remember what I did to deserve them - seriously, I can't recall doing anything more for the folks at A&M than I did for anyone else back then - but she'd show up at just about every convention with another shirt. Kumo no Juuza, Ein, and Kenshiro, from <em>Hokuto no Ken</em>. Ai-chan, from <em>Catseye</em>. And this beauty:<br />
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Man, these bring back memories. I don't know or remember what I did to get on your good side and probably didn't thank you nearly enough, Margaret, but if you're reading this, you totally rock. <br />
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Of course, when I got the <em>Captain Harlock</em> gig at Eternity, they tried to launch the title with a big push at San Diego one year and part of that was printing up a lot of Tees with Ben Dunn's version on the back. I remember one day at the con, the entire Malibu Graphics gang was wearing 'em, though I dunno if that's exactly a good thing. But the shirts themselves were really nice and after almost ten years of use, mine never totally wore out, though I retired it a decade back.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NHnUbS-aI/AAAAAAAAAZM/GZaJ8yPwqKk/s1600-h/Roberts+222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NHnUbS-aI/AAAAAAAAAZM/GZaJ8yPwqKk/s400/Roberts+222.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NIS0tgK7I/AAAAAAAAAZU/EifDLQhPvXw/s1600-h/Roberts+221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S5NIS0tgK7I/AAAAAAAAAZU/EifDLQhPvXw/s400/Roberts+221.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="color: red;">Again, because you simply can not get too much Emeraldas</span></div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-819725686092100232010-02-23T02:14:00.016-06:002010-02-23T05:35:06.082-06:00Big Sound, Big Battle From Memories!! Long Live the Great Tree of Tragic Love!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4NvXjWWnfI/AAAAAAAAAWE/IbCEBFw-VK4/s1600-h/windaria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4NvXjWWnfI/AAAAAAAAAWE/IbCEBFw-VK4/s400/windaria.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Legend of Fabulous Battle Windaria</span><br />
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Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a week since the last blog, but I've been pretty busy. Catching up. When you've been away from this stuff for fifteen years, there's a LOT of "catching up" to do. In this case, I was going through a plastic bag of old audio tapes, trying to figure out which were physically worth saving and which weren't. Unfortunately, the bulk of my <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> soundtracks were damaged, same with the assorted Matsumoto BGMs, two tapes of anime opening and closing songs (damn), and the tape copies I made of my <em>Catseye</em> and <em>City Hunter</em> sountracks (double damn). I still have the actual LP copies to rerecord from (provided I can find a turntable), but it's probably just less of a hassle to find and download the music from the web nowadays. But among the tapes that still worked was one of my all-time favorite soundtracks and one I never managed to get on LP - <em>The Legend of Fabulous Battle Windaria</em>.<br />
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I never really much cared for the "digital" soundtrack phase the industry went through (here as well as Japan) during the '80s. For instance, I was rewatching <em>Firestarter</em> a couple months back and was struck by how the Tangerine Dream music just sucked the life out of the thing rather than enriching the experience. Trevor Jones has made his name with digital music, but I still think his masterpiece so far has been <em>The Last of the Mohicans</em> and he was rumored to have been forced into changing over to an orchestra for that, which is why Randy Edelman was brought in to score half the film. I guess I'm just an orchestra kind of guy through and through, but there have been certain notable exceptions. The Kitaro soundtracks for <em>Queen 1000</em> and <em>Black Rain</em>. And, of course, the soundtrack to <em>Windaria</em>. I'm not sure if the dual digital/orchestra score was the reason for the multiple composers or not, but just like in the case of <em>LotM</em> above, it certainly didn't hurt this one. It's a perfect match for the film, similarly brilliant and sadly mostly underrated, if in fact, it is ever thought about at all. And, of course, the two songs just soar. The audio copy I have left now is the second of two I had made for me back in the day because I wore out the first. Sigh.<br />
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Even though it's been at least twenty years since I last saw the film, I can still match the tracks to it. I can remember driving on the freeway back during the late '80s, listening to the tape, and my eyes suddenly started swelling up. My girlfriend looked at me and asked me what was up. <br />
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"Marrin just flew off." <br />
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Of course, she gave me a double take.<br />
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"Marrin just turned into a bird and flew off towards the ghost ship, and Izu is chasing her."<br />
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"Oh. Okay."<br />
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C'mon, now, I know it's not just me, though maybe in this particular case it might be. But good soundtracks, memorable soundtracks - they do that. And the soundtrack to <em>Windaria</em> is no exception. There are at least four tracks on this tape that I can match to the scenes. In my mind. But it's been a long time. Probably too long.<br />
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</div>One of the many things I've lost to the black hole in the middle of my memory is exactly where I got my copy of <em>Legend of Fabulous Battle Windaria</em> from and to whom I owe that debt. But after <em>My Youth in Arcadia</em>, it stands as my favorite anime feature. There are certain films you can remember scene by scene and I'm not quite there (due to the time thing) with <em>Windaria</em>, but I can come close enough. Equal parts fairy tale and traditional tragedy, it's just the kind of film that should appeal to me and does exactly that, but even where anime is concerned it is, if not unique, then in rare company in that.<br />
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It's just the kind of anime film you could pop in your VCR back in the day (assuming you could translate enough of it, of course) and show to your snobbish cousin with his or her degree in English Literature and proudly say "Hey, look, they DO know what they're doing here," even if it is a bit by-the-numbers. Izu is your "classic" tragic hero of the western mold, complete with tragic flaw, actions which lead to the ruin of himself and people around him (in this case, an entire city) and, invariably, his realization that his actions have cost him everything, resulting in catharsis for the audience and a bunch of eye-swelling for us hopeless romantics who listen to soundtracks while driving down the freeway. He doesn't exactly die, as he certainly might in most classic western examples, but his fate is certainly less than appealing - a six-month wait for a (possible, IIRC, the ending is unclear) reunion with Marrin when he becomes captain of the ghost ship, living alone with the memories of what he'd done to cause her death and maybe the deaths of many of the people of the city he drowned. But, as with the case with most tragedy, his ultimate fate isn't what's important - it's the effect and lessons passed along to the audience. In this case, don't leave behind paradise and someone who loves you in order to go zipping around on a hovercycle, palling around with perverted Palu people and, whatever you do, don't drown cities just because some rich widow offered you riches and a palace. Those deals just NEVER work out. <br />
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But, yeah, it was hard to sell back in the day because most viewers only see "sad ending." They don't "get" tragedy. And to think back in England, Shakespeare filled the Globe with groundlings, who were no different from you or me, really. The worked hard, got sweaty, walked home with shit all over their faces. But they "got" <em>King Lear</em>. <em>Othello</em> wasn't "sad," it was art. <em>Legend of Fabulous Battle Windaria</em> isn't nearly in that class, but what is? Bah, enough of that. It's too late to drink...<br />
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I suppose much of the delight that the memories of this film bring to me come from the fact that themes such as the above are actually easily recognizable if you are looking for them, whereas much of what happens in anime is uniquely Japanese (and, yes, there is that aplenty in <em>Windaria</em> too). Even for us slobs who were watching raw with little understanding of the language. In a lot of ways, it's a western film, right down to the fairy-tale romance of the prince and princess of warring kingdoms and the unicorns that are shown grazing in the opening credits. Or at least it tries very hard to be. <br />
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As a writer myself, it's just in my blood to take for granted that every quality collaborative film project lives and dies by the script. So, sue me. The writer, Keisuke Fujikawa, cut his teeth on a lot of Matsumoto-inspired anime, including various <em>Yamato</em> and <em>Galaxy Express 999</em> projects as well as the <em>Queen 1000</em> film, so I imagine the romance and tragedy angles in <em>Windaria</em> are close to his heart. I understand he also wrote a novel based on the film or the film is based on his novel, but I'm not quite sure of the details here. Back in the day, it was difficult enough trying to translate dialogue, sourcing and crediting issues were another world altogether. I'm not exactly familiar with the director, though I'm sure someone out there will let me know he either went on to be extremely famous and awe-inspiring - or went on to do <em>Pokemon</em>. I kid.<br />
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The character designs are by Mutsumi Inomata, whose work I simply adore. I understand she did a lot of the supervising on the animation as well. I suspect this might be a case where she did a lot of the work without getting a lot of the credit. I dunno if the times have changed or not, but women in Japan back then simply did not get major director credits. Somehow, I suspect the situation hasn't changed much. Sadly. In any case, the characters and costuming here are a major strength. Speaking as an example of the male of the species, I just have to say Princess Ahanas just flat out rocks a battle outfit like no princess before or since. Well, assuming you don't consider whatever Xena wore to be a battle outfit. I still get goose bumps thinking of the scene on the bridge where her battle turban from hell unwraps as Jiru falls backwards...but I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
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</div>Oh, yeah, on that note, if you haven't seen <em>Windaria</em> and plan on finding a copy "somewhere" in the next week or so, you might want to skip the rest of this until you do. I'm not exactly crazy about spoiler warnings in general, much less on articles about twenty-five year old obscure anime, but I understand some people actually get upset about such things. So, uh, you've been warned. Besides, if you're read this far, you already know Izu screws up in the end and Marrin dies. So there.<br />
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The film opens with a ritualistic funeral scene in the fictional countryside land of Saki ("Blossom"), which lies between the constantly warring city-states of Palu and Itha, which are currently under a tentative truce. A man has died and we see that when a peasant of Saki dies, his or her soul takes the form of a red glowing bird-thing that flies off in the general direction of what the natives call the "ghost ship," a blimp-like UFO that hovers through the clouds and emits a haunting siren every once in a while. It's fairly spooky for what it is. It isn't made exactly clear through the film if only the spirits of the peasants of Saki get this special treatment, or if the entire world does because later in the film we see bird spirits from Itha fly towards the ship as well, though the residents of Saki have evacuated by then so some of them may well have died in Itha. But, anyway...<br />
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</div>Watching this ceremony are Izu and Marrin, two peasants farmers from Saki. It isn't clear whether or not they are actually married (or even if the people of Saki have such a ceremony), but they are definitely lovers. Together, they tow a vegetable cart of their wares to the seaside city-state of Itha, which is kind of like New Orleans in that it's built mainly below sea level and kept dry by a system of levees, dams and sea gates. The name itself is hard not to associate with the "Ithaca" of Homer's <em>Odyssey</em>, thus hinting that Fujikawa was trying to inject a bit more "western myth" flavor to the film. While Izu and Marrin are closing down shop, a spy from the state of Palu slips into the city and steals the keys to the sea gate from the keeper and attempts to flood the city. While everyone else runs to higher ground, Izu takes it upon himself to be a hero and close the gates. I dunno exactly why the city of Itha has no brave guys of their own who know how to close their sea gates, but there you go. Meanwhile, the Princess of Itha (young and gorgeous, of course), Ahanas, who was out for her morning swim, kung-fu's the spy into unconsciousness.<br />
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The Queen of Itha thanks Izu for being such a great guy, but Izu is a bit insulted that she hasn't rewarded him. Uh, oh, that's the first sign that Izu might not have his "hero" head on straight. The queen's advisors warn her that Palu has obviously broken the truce and so she should immediately start preparing for war. Ahanas objects, which clues the queen in that something's up. Turns out that Ahanas is in love with the Prince of Palu, Jiru (I refuse to call him "Jill" just because) and has been sending him love letters via carrier pigeon and the two of them have been going out for dark frolics in the forest (or frolics in the dark forest) that divides the two kingdoms.<br />
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For his part, Jiru tries in vain to talk his father, the King of Palu, out of the crazy plan of attacking Itha. He wonders what kind of insanity would drive you to flood a city that you're trying to conquer. Which is, actually, a very good point that never gets addressed, even after Izu manages to do it near the end of the film. The whole war plotline doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its face, unless there's something deeper that isn't really explored. It may be a ritualist thing having to do with honor, a tradition thing, or simply that the King of Palu (and his queen) are crazy insane. There really is no real motive given unless I missed something, which is certainly possible. I'm mainly working from memory here. If anyone's got any ideas on this, please say so in the comments.<br />
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Izu and Marrin go back to their house, and the countrymen of Saki call a meeting under the tree Windaria, which is where the film gets its name. Windaria is big. Really, really big. As in the size of a domed stadium, big. The people of Saki pray to it daily for good thoughts and good memories. Either the tree doesn't work or Izu doesn't pray hard enough. Probably the latter. The carrier pigeon that Ahanas and Jiru use to pass their love letters back and forth stops under the tree to avoid the rain. Izu climbs up the tree and reads the love note, laughs, and tells the people of Saki that there won't be a war because the princess of Itha and the prince of Palu are in love. The people of Saki decide to evacuate anyway, just in case. Good move on their part.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N3BVyptcI/AAAAAAAAAWs/Z4Y80zjREfk/s1600-h/Roberts+208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N3BVyptcI/AAAAAAAAAWs/Z4Y80zjREfk/s400/Roberts+208.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Izu</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N3VI-B4KI/AAAAAAAAAW0/WVXQRMjaUU0/s1600-h/Roberts+209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N3VI-B4KI/AAAAAAAAAW0/WVXQRMjaUU0/s400/Roberts+209.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Marrin</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Ahanas and Jiru meet in the dark forest and talk about the possibility of an upcoming war. Neither want it, or so they say. Ahanas grabs Jiru's gun and runs away, forcing him to chase after her, though I doubt it's 'cause he wants his gun back. I have to mention the song here. It's just fabulous, one of my favorite anime songs, though you can't hear the entire thing unless you actually have the soundtrack. Jeez, now I'm starting to get the sniffles again. Man, it's tough being such a softie.<br />
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Back in Saki, word gets around that both Palu and Itha are recruiting for the coming war. Izu, still smarting from thinking that his good deed in Itha went unrewarded, is contacted by the Minister of Palu, who offers to reward him handsomely for joining the Palu Army. Just for considering the offer, he leaves Izu a hovercycle, which is just the bribe for a poor farmer boy who is used to hauling his own damned vegetable cart five miles to market. In probably the second or third best scene of the film, Izu goes on an extended ride on his new toy. Now, I've heard the complaint that this scene goes on too long and doesn't accomplish a whole lot. Yeah, and that comes mainly from the women. You got your scene between Jiru and Ahanas, this is ours. The men know. They all close their eyes and imagine they're on that damned thing and the ride's too fucking SHORT. No, the producers knew exactly what they were doing with that scene. I didn't even mind the digital music to it. It certainly sticks in your mind when you hear the soundtrack. Note to the women reading this. Don't get between a man and his ride, whether it be a car, plane, motorcycle or hoverbike. Even if you're a orange-haired, doe-eyed knockout like Marrin with your own cute critter on your shoulder, you're likely to lose. Sad, but true.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N4DPwO0MI/AAAAAAAAAW8/2yNBg7fJBBo/s1600-h/Roberts+202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N4DPwO0MI/AAAAAAAAAW8/2yNBg7fJBBo/s400/Roberts+202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Worse than the NFL, ladies, I'm tellin' ya</span> </div><br />
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Several nights later, Izu gets up from their bed, puts on his jacket and prepares to leave for Palu. Of course, it isn't that easy. The light comes on from upstairs, Marrin comes down with her lantern in hand and eyes knowing that her lover has made his decision. She gives him a gift - a knife in a sheath (remember this, it's plot important) - and promises him she will wait for him to return to her, whatever happens. He tells her he is only leaving because Palu offered him things that he could not get for her otherwise, and promises to come back to her. They embrace, kiss, and it's only after he leaves that she slowly climbs the ladder and, at their bedside, breaks down into tears.<br />
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Sorry, had to get up and get a kleenex. <br />
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It was during this scene upon first viewing that I figured that "Izu" must translate to "dumbass" in English. Or if it didn't before this film, it certainly should've afterwards. Seriously, between the animation, the voice acting and the music in that Marrin crying scene...I wanted to strangle the guy myself. But that's just me...<br />
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Sometime after Izu leaves, the people of Itha decide to launch a fairly silly-looking balloon ship. I dunno why, exactly, because it's certainly not much of either an attack weapon or a defense vehicle. I've even heard it called a "spy balloon." Seriously. It's like the size of the Goodyear Blimp and unlikely to sneak up on a blind possum. Anyway, several airplanes from the drunken Palu airforce decide to engage this monstrosity and end up either getting shot down or accidently crashing into it, finally bringing it to the ground in a flaming mess not far from Marrin's house in Saki. But the one airplane that manages to escape from the encounter makes it back to Palu and crash-lands, thus giving the hawks in the Palu military reason to believe Itha is going to attack them. As if they needed further incentive. Jiru once again goes to confront insane daddy over the stupid war with no motive and the king actively tries to kill his own son, but ends up dead instead. <br />
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Now the next part is pretty confusing and I've never gotten a clear explanation for it, but because Jiru kills his father, somehow he feels he has to carry out the attack on Itha. Maybe there's a rule to this effect somewhere in the Palu governing documents. Or maybe the insanity is just hereditary, I dunno. But there you go. The carrier pigeon from Ahanas gets gunned down by one of the trigger-happy incompetent morons in the Palu Army, thus preventing communication between Jiru and Ahanas. Izu shows up in Palu trying to meet with the prime minister who gave him the cool ride, but no one in Palu cares. Well, okay, at least one of them cares - enough to run over his nice new hoverbike. But, hey, he tells Izu he can have his nifty tank instead because he has a heavy date with a hooker. Sounds like an even trade to me. I think every woman in Palu is either a whore or an assassin. Some are both. No wonder the men are all drunk. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N6P0DXv7I/AAAAAAAAAXE/imAtzUz57iA/s1600-h/Roberts+204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N6P0DXv7I/AAAAAAAAAXE/imAtzUz57iA/s400/Roberts+204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Palu</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N6x43DRII/AAAAAAAAAXM/MwAtIb-URU4/s1600-h/Roberts+205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N6x43DRII/AAAAAAAAAXM/MwAtIb-URU4/s400/Roberts+205.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Itha</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">I guess I ought to say something about the relative conditions of the two city-states here. Itha is technology-deprived (you know this because they still use crossbows), but their people are competent, except of course when it comes to finding people to shut off the sea gates. Palu has advanced technology, but the soldiers are an order of fries and a drink short of a happy meal. Things crash and blow up a lot in Palu - the producers of this were undoubtedly big fans of the <em>A-Team</em> when it comes to vehicle explosions. I can still remember at least five examples of tanks or other craft exploding after running into walls or rocks and the last time I saw this was twenty years ago. Maybe that says something about me. Anyway, it's only because of Jiru's leadership that this bunch could get out of bed in the morning. But, somehow, he manages to get an army assembled and leads an assault on the forces of Itha.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, they have to go through Saki to get there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">After some scenes in the forest, where the army of Palu are attacked by figments of either their imaginations or from earlier experiments with LSD, the fight moves into the plains near the tree Windaria. Explosions blanket the countryside and one of them wipes out half of Marrin's house...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">With the battle turning against Itha, the Queen of Itha collapses and Ahanas, not knowing that her pigeon has croaked, thinks that Jiru broke his promise and betrayed her. She takes over command of the forces of Itha and leads them out onto the plains of Saki, where she sees Jiru. Motioning to him from across the battlefield, they meet in the forest to discuss their futures. Meeting at the bridge that marks the boundaries of the two countries, she is saddened at the fact that, no matter which side wins, they can never truly be together. In yet another one of those unforgettable musical moments (for me, anyway), she shoots him and he falls back, he clutches her headress in his hands and we see it slowly unravel, much like their love and their world. She puts the gun to her own head. From the distance, we hear the shot and watch the river turn blood red. It's one of the few scenes from anime that's got a permanent parking place in my mind, along with Harlock losing his eye and Emeraldas getting her scar. Or kumo no Juuza's dead body on the ground, clouds oozing from all around it. Or Souther limping over to the body of his dead master, pleading with him to show him love. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Or the climactic scene from later in this very same film...the one mentioned above that got me off my lazy butt and started on this entry.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N7xVWBYkI/AAAAAAAAAXU/SSRxpmmeqcs/s1600-h/Roberts+211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N7xVWBYkI/AAAAAAAAAXU/SSRxpmmeqcs/s400/Roberts+211.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ahanas</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N8KGxcDxI/AAAAAAAAAXc/FkQrryq5xL0/s1600-h/Roberts+201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N8KGxcDxI/AAAAAAAAAXc/FkQrryq5xL0/s400/Roberts+201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Jiru</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">While the battle is raging, Izu finally gets to see the Palu minister who gave him the cool bike, but by that time the king is already dead, Jiru is leading the Palu forces and the queen is desperate, not knowing which way the battle will go. Still not quite grasping the fact that a flooded kingdom would be kind of pointless to conquer, the minister talks the Queen into allowing Izu to go back to finish the mission of the spy that Izu himself thwarted. She offers Izu all sorts of gold and even a palace, not to mention many more Palu women than he could afford all on his own. Yeah, well, Palu women are evidently pretty expensive to maintain, unlike their war toys. Visions of fame and fortune (not to mention the whores...er...cocubines) are just a bit too much of a bribe for the poor farmer boy, so he quickly agrees, jumps into a motorized river vehicle and zips down the river towards Itha, which has been left virtually unguarded, seeing as most of the citizens are out fighting in the plains of Saki. Conning the old guard out of the keys to the seagate, he proceeds to drown the city. Again, the good citizens of Itha don't seem to have anyone other than Izu and the old man capable enough to turn the two big wheels. In a matter of moments (or so it seems), the city of Itha is flooded and Palu wins...well, a bunch of flooded city. Oh, and I guess you could throw in the dark haunted forest and a bunch of burnt Saki farmland littered with broken and ruined remnants of the war. Whee! What a haul. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, after the battle, Izu returns to Palu a war hero and, just as she promised, the queen gives him all the gold and fireworks he can handle. But only one Palu woman, it seems. But man, what a woman! She dances, she throws gold around, she does...stuff in bed we don't get to see...and she wields a mean scarf; which she proceeds to try and strangle Izu with. You see, the queen (or more probably that damned minister again) decides that after a couple of months he's outlived his usefullness and orders him killed. The concubine/assassin doesn't turn out to be all that and Izu, realizing a bit too late that it doesn't generally pay to make deals with corrupt royalty, manages to escape Palu with his life - or what's left of it.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">In a really, really nicely moody sequence, he uses the knife Marrin gave him to cut away the mooring of a small boat and collapses into it, his unconscious body floating down the same river he took to Ithu in order to ruin it during the war. While he's asleep, the boat drifts underneath the now-broken bridge where, months earlier, Ahanas killed Jiru and then herself. Flying over the bridge that once represented what might have been a permanent relationship between Itha and Palu are two of the red soul-birds, the two lovers chasing each other in death through the dark forest, just as they'd done numerous times in life. It's a little thing and doesn't last for more than a few seconds, but it's there if you're willing to look for it. Just like a lot of other smaller treasures scattered throughout this film. In fact, the entire final fifteen minutes or so of this one is a study in one powerful scene (some subtle, some not so much) after another as Izu - and the audience - comes to recognize exactly how badly he's screwed things up. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N-vrEJCnI/AAAAAAAAAXk/qtpM-I95D0o/s1600-h/Roberts+203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4N-vrEJCnI/AAAAAAAAAXk/qtpM-I95D0o/s400/Roberts+203.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">The infamous bridge of dead lovers</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">The boat comes to rest at the bottom of a hill which Izu proceeds to climb - only to find himself looking down at the remains of Itha, an underwater hell of his creation, a watery graveyard sparkling under the powerful moonlight. A clock tower chimes and dozens of the red soul-birds come flying out of the city in Izu's general direction, one of those not-so-subtle scenes I mentioned earlier. Running in fear from them down the hill and across a field, he falls flat on his face and accidently cuts himself with the knife Marrin gave him before he left on his not-so-splendid adventure. Only then does he remember her. Dumbass. Plucking up his courage, he slowly trods across the bloody fields of Saki, littered with the remnants of the war and destroyed or partially destroyed houses of the people who were once his friends, until he makes it to his old house, only half of which is still standing. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Amazingly, Marrin's little critter is there and, very soon after, a light appears from within and Marrin herself walks out. The dumbass apologizes for not remembering to come back and is surprised to see she doesn't seem upset in the slightest. In fact, she just seems overwhelmingly happy that he came back at all, which should be his first clue that something's not quite right. Then the music starts up, we hear the moan of the ghost ship in the background and I start to sniffle up again. Yes, it turns out Marrin was indeed killed during the war, but her love for him was so strong that even death couldn't keep her from fullfilling her promise to wait for him. He reaches out for her, but she says she has to go and quietly fades into a red soul-bird as the music swells and she slowly flies off with Izu close behind, hopelessly chasing her across the fields and hills of Saki to a cliff over the sea, while the ghost ship beckons from afar overhead. Giving her lover one last swoop over his head and just out of his reach, she flies off to the ghost ship and disappears, leaving Izu and the land of Saki behind forever.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">After helplessly watching her disappear, Izu falls to his knees and yells to the ghost ship that he'll vollunteer to pilot the ship in exchange for being with Marrin. The way it was explained to me back in the day is that the ghost ship requires human pilots to work ten year shifts. About ten years back, the current captain was the lover of Duruido (I'm guessing that's supposed to actually be "Druid" but I've never actually seen it spelled that way) who took the job to prove his love to her because she was constantly pushing him to strive for a higher status in life. Evidently, there's no higher status in life in the world of <em>Windaria</em> than being the pilot of the ghost ship, I dunno. But the parallels to Izu/Marrin are there. The current pilot sacrificed everything (well, the physical stuff anway) for love, as did Marrin. Since Izu and Duruido indirectly demanded the sacrifice of their lovers without truly understanding it, they were destined to suffer. It just so happens that Duruido is there on the same cliff as Izu and explains to him that he'll have to wait a measure of time (I've heard a year, I've heard half a year) in order for her lover's shift to be over before he can become the pilot. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">As to why Duruido turned to stone after telling him all this is something of a mystery to me still. The best explanation I've gotten was that she was always stone but was cursed to suffer with physical form and regret for the loss of her lover until she truly understood and felt his sacrifice and her part in it. It's not a great explanation, but I always put it down to being a "Japanese thing." Maybe it's just an unexplainable thing. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has anything better...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The film ends with Izu walking dejectedly over to the tree Windaria and climbing one of its roots until he finally breaks down in tears. How effective such an ending is probably depends on how much you care about Izu and the whole redemption and penance thing. Being raised Catholic, it registers with me because, well, without the hope of redemption, what's the point? No, most of us haven't drowned cities, but how many of us have done incredibly stupid things and turned our backs on perfectly good lovers? Probably more than we'd like to admit. The producers played a bit ambigously with the sinking of Itha, making a point of showing us the few citizens left in the city made it out before it totally flooded, but you have to figure that there were casualties. And then there were all those soul-birds that flew at Izu upon his return. Maybe they were simply mad at him for sinking their homes? In any case, as I pointed out before the recap of the film, most of that is beside the point. Throughout history, I'm sure audiences have had a hard time feeling empathy for MacBeth too. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And the song over the ending credits? Just awesome. One of the joys of this generation of anime fans is that, due to youtube and downloads, there's an actual chance of getting song translations to some of these older films. Which is why I'm off to youtube as soon as I put this one to bed. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I do understand that Carl Macek and Streamline released a heavily edited and rewritten version sometime during the '90s. As is the case with the <em>Fist of the North Star</em> feature by Streamline, I made it a point of ignoring it on purpose. Still haven't seen it. Have no plans to see it. I'd rather live with the memories...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And that absolutely wonderful soundtrack.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OAr1caygI/AAAAAAAAAXs/Jq7dEtOHVco/s1600-h/Roberts+197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OAr1caygI/AAAAAAAAAXs/Jq7dEtOHVco/s400/Roberts+197.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">I understand the soundtrack is now a collectable. And quite expensive.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OBOQPgL9I/AAAAAAAAAX0/VZlpBm744Fg/s1600-h/Roberts+199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OBOQPgL9I/AAAAAAAAAX0/VZlpBm744Fg/s400/Roberts+199.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OB4wkeFwI/AAAAAAAAAX8/QZpcWjk9cxs/s1600-h/Roberts+210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OB4wkeFwI/AAAAAAAAAX8/QZpcWjk9cxs/s400/Roberts+210.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OCW80Dd2I/AAAAAAAAAYE/kRZmCybc08U/s1600-h/Roberts+200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OCW80Dd2I/AAAAAAAAAYE/kRZmCybc08U/s400/Roberts+200.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OCwkahLKI/AAAAAAAAAYM/BoibWZ83fyw/s1600-h/Roberts+190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OCwkahLKI/AAAAAAAAAYM/BoibWZ83fyw/s400/Roberts+190.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">You too could've had an official movie book for two bucks back in the day. Books Nippan was having a sale.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4ODkbFvXdI/AAAAAAAAAYU/3DJa40Ccbrs/s1600-h/Roberts+192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4ODkbFvXdI/AAAAAAAAAYU/3DJa40Ccbrs/s400/Roberts+192.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OD7eEgq8I/AAAAAAAAAYc/6deCc_OcKcc/s1600-h/Roberts+191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S4OD7eEgq8I/AAAAAAAAAYc/6deCc_OcKcc/s400/Roberts+191.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-78109041019621081442010-02-16T03:16:00.001-06:002010-02-16T03:38:47.953-06:00Fans Worship Water Cape Kid From Comic God!! Please Find Missing Artist by Old Date!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oZ2BSdmbI/AAAAAAAAAT0/9ISDqNrRYdM/s1600-h/Roberts+165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oZ2BSdmbI/AAAAAAAAAT0/9ISDqNrRYdM/s400/Roberts+165.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Odd 'N Ends</span><br />
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Above is one of the doujinshis Mitsuyoshi sent me back in the day, this one devoted to Osamu Tezuka's <em>Triton of the Sea</em>. It's a really nice package, the printing/binding is as good if not better than most graphic novels printed over here in the mid-80s. I dunno what the print run on this one was, but I expect someone spent a good deal of money to get it published. 34 pages, front and back. Nice, thick cover. Several different kinds of paper stock. Every time I picked this one up to get to something else in the box, I almost always stopped to flip through it and told myself I was going to do some more research into <em>Triton</em>, a series and manga I knew almost nothing about. Luckily, we live in the age of youtube and even though the anime never got airplay here in the US, it certainly seemed to have played everywhere else around the world in the mid-70s. Lots and lots of youtube clips of it around. If you're interested, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRV3fr4NH_4&feature=channel">this</a> is a good one to start with and the superb video quality of this guy's uploads has me guessing the series was just recently released (or, more accurately, re-released) on DVD. Yeah, the translation for the subtitles is weak, and was most probably done in Japan, but it's certainly good enough to get the job done.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oaUhUC8QI/AAAAAAAAAT8/Sd7hxgnGd-o/s1600-h/Roberts+168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oaUhUC8QI/AAAAAAAAAT8/Sd7hxgnGd-o/s400/Roberts+168.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
Just judging by the first two TV episodes, whoever did the write-up on <em>Triton</em> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_of_the_Sea">wiki</a> either didn't watch the anime or was using the manga as a guide (despite the voice cast being part of the article), because the two of them simply don't match. A better write-up of the anime is <a href="http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=95">here</a>, though no credit is given on it. The animation is pretty standard for the time period, with requisite cute sidekick characters (love the dolphins with freckles and "glasses" respectively), but it's still pretty cool. I mean, how many supertypes can rock a cape UNDERWATER? Hell, Aquaman couldn't even do that. I especially love the part where Triton is shunned by the land folk because of his green hair. This was actually back when bizarre hair color in anime was the exception rather than the rule, I guess. Dunno if that was Tezuka or Tomino (yes, THAT Tomino, who can claim this as his directoral debut) who came up with the idea, but that one gets a drink from me before I hit the sack tonight. I wonder exactly when the whole "strange hair color as normal" thing became a feature rather than a bug. Someone ought to do an article...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oauTDShPI/AAAAAAAAAUE/Wbf226sArhc/s1600-h/Roberts+167.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oauTDShPI/AAAAAAAAAUE/Wbf226sArhc/s400/Roberts+167.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Seriously, look at that cape go!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3obHl_icpI/AAAAAAAAAUM/sAZ1zKTcGsM/s1600-h/Roberts+166.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3obHl_icpI/AAAAAAAAAUM/sAZ1zKTcGsM/s400/Roberts+166.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Whatever Happened To...</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ocsM8yuRI/AAAAAAAAAUU/nhufGtKTFQM/s1600-h/Roberts+170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ocsM8yuRI/AAAAAAAAAUU/nhufGtKTFQM/s400/Roberts+170.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oiSGyAR7I/AAAAAAAAAVU/V4Z9sENQByc/s1600-h/Roberts+189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oiSGyAR7I/AAAAAAAAAVU/V4Z9sENQByc/s400/Roberts+189.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Sean Bishop?<br />
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I worked with a few artists during my abbreviated career in comics - some went on to bigger and better things, some fell off the face of the earth, and some found better uses for thier skills. Some probably shouldn't have been doing it at all...but Sean Bishop was not one of them. I thought he was insanely talented, especially for a kid who basically came out of nowhere. He knew the <em>Macross</em> source material backwards and forwards and the passion was definitely there, which is something that I didn't exactly get from all of the people I worked with.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3odeDb0s0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/kUhlhBMf-fg/s1600-h/Roberts+182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3odeDb0s0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/kUhlhBMf-fg/s400/Roberts+182.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3odxGvZUQI/AAAAAAAAAUk/dIW56qhrLkE/s1600-h/Roberts+184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3odxGvZUQI/AAAAAAAAAUk/dIW56qhrLkE/s400/Roberts+184.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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These are from <em>Return to Macross #20</em>, which suffered from a printing shortage in addition to the incredibly weak numbers that the Academy Comics run of the Robotech property had, which makes it more difficult to come by than the remainder of the run. I only have two copies of the issue myself, which is why I'm using the photocopies Sean originally sent me waaaaay back in '93 or whenever this was. The issue is a Lisa Hayes flashback story that led into the events of <em>Academy Blues</em>. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oem63rNrI/AAAAAAAAAUs/0_HOaxh_quc/s1600-h/Roberts+185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oem63rNrI/AAAAAAAAAUs/0_HOaxh_quc/s400/Roberts+185.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oe7I5QI2I/AAAAAAAAAU0/nahG2JUusBU/s1600-h/Roberts+186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oe7I5QI2I/AAAAAAAAAU0/nahG2JUusBU/s400/Roberts+186.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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I did some googling for "Sean Bishop" and did come across a few IMDB entries for storyboard and voice acting work, which leads me to believe that he, like Tim Eldred, ended up in animation, which is probably a good place for a person with artistic talent and passion. Assuming, of course, it's the same guy. I guess the ladder is fairly tough to climb, 'cause I'd have figured he'd be heading up projects by now. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3offd3FFiI/AAAAAAAAAU8/r0vNtlJzUsM/s1600-h/Roberts+188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3offd3FFiI/AAAAAAAAAU8/r0vNtlJzUsM/s400/Roberts+188.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">I promised myself I'd stop at one joke about Lisa's hair.</span> </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ogXKC5IiI/AAAAAAAAAVE/EopL6FbgmZ4/s1600-h/Roberts+183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ogXKC5IiI/AAAAAAAAAVE/EopL6FbgmZ4/s400/Roberts+183.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Okay, maybe two jokes.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Area 88</em> in '88</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3og_RnybWI/AAAAAAAAAVM/9peO_8t3uQ0/s1600-h/Roberts+175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3og_RnybWI/AAAAAAAAAVM/9peO_8t3uQ0/s400/Roberts+175.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Back when Eclipse first hooked up with Viz to reprint manga for us poor slobs on this side of the Pacific, part of the publicity binge included this <em>Area 88</em> Wall Calendar (1988, of course), with illos by Yattaran...err Kaoru Shintani. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oi7DqARDI/AAAAAAAAAVc/9oGPnqkyf44/s1600-h/Roberts+177.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3oi7DqARDI/AAAAAAAAAVc/9oGPnqkyf44/s400/Roberts+177.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ojQjlcEsI/AAAAAAAAAVk/4jBWrzy8N28/s1600-h/Roberts+178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ojQjlcEsI/AAAAAAAAAVk/4jBWrzy8N28/s400/Roberts+178.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Not sure where I got this one, but I'm thinking it had to be at a San Diego ComiCon in '88 or '89 because it's not rolled up, whereas all my other anime calendars are. Wall calenders are pretty big, which is why we like 'em, but in order to ship them, you almost have to roll them up and put them in poster tubes. I once had three or four different wall calenders from different shows, but as soon as they weren't timely anymore, I'd unhook the individual posters (almost all the Japanese calenders allowed for this) from each other and send them out to people I knew would appreciate them. As you can see with this one, it has a plastic roll fastener at the top, so you can't do that. Which is why I still have it in order to show it to you now. The price says 10 bucks, but I'm pretty sure someone at Eclipse/Viz gave me this one.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ojqxQmerI/AAAAAAAAAVs/OEDwCNCOE_0/s1600-h/Roberts+179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3ojqxQmerI/AAAAAAAAAVs/OEDwCNCOE_0/s400/Roberts+179.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">This base needs to get themselves a new photographer, 'cause this guy can't take pictures worth shit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3okDLazmSI/AAAAAAAAAV0/gC10KoVuQHk/s1600-h/Roberts+180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3okDLazmSI/AAAAAAAAAV0/gC10KoVuQHk/s400/Roberts+180.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Just for comparison, here's the one page from the 1985? Nippan Sunrise Mecha Wall Calendar that I kept.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3olSykqt5I/AAAAAAAAAV8/_0A5B5HJ-Ao/s1600-h/Roberts+181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3olSykqt5I/AAAAAAAAAV8/_0A5B5HJ-Ao/s400/Roberts+181.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Love me some Galient!</div><br />
</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-76665506116822114402010-02-11T22:13:00.004-06:002010-02-11T23:17:33.551-06:00San Antonio Attacks Phoenix with OVA!! Beware the Animation Cel with Teeth!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TQOvuhaoI/AAAAAAAAATU/8jlLa2cVqi0/s1600-h/monstercitimg002cc6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TQOvuhaoI/AAAAAAAAATU/8jlLa2cVqi0/s400/monstercitimg002cc6.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">CactusCon '87 </span><span style="font-size: small;">(or "That Wicked City Con")</span><br />
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By the winter of 1987, C/FO-San Antonio was smack dab in the middle of organized anime fandom and I was right in the middle of C/FO-San. Basically, I was a really busy guy. In addition to being the center of the tape-trading part of the operation, I was in charge of most of the correspondence that didn't have to do with higher muckity-muck political stuff. Which is just how I liked it, thankyouverymuch. By that time, I had somewhat of a reputation as someone who was willing to bring a large part of my vidtape collection with me when I travelled to club meetings and conventions, which made for some interesting hotel stays. Sometimes I'd handle all that taping myself, sometimes I'd just hand off the tapes to whoever wanted them and I wouldn't see them again for days. But, for conventions, I usually kept them with me because I'd developed somewhat of a rep because of my all-night vidrooms. <br />
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I was a night owl back then (still true) who thrived on lack of sleep (definitely still NOT true), so, combined with the fact that I had a relatively huge anime vidtape collection, it made me the natural person to handle the overnight portions of the convention video rooms. During the '80s, most of the comic book conventions in Texas were run by Larry Lankford's Bulldog Productions and he let the Earth Defense Command run the video rooms. Usually during this time period, that still meant one room that showed general fantasy/sf films and one that showed nothing but anime. Sometimes, if the con was small, it would only have one video room that ran a combination of the two. Generally, one room would shut down about midnight or early in the morning and I'd haul my box of tapes into the anime room and basically show pretty much whatever the majority of people wanted to see. That allowed us to show newer stuff that wasn't available when the schedule was made, plus things that the con staff might not have (ahem) approved of. Now, hentai vids had just started coming out in Japan a few years earlier, but I made it a point never to actually show them in the vidrooms proper because that would've been stretching things a bit more than would've been prudent. Plus, I didn't want some parent complaining to the con staff about something Little Timmy saw even though it was five fucking hours past Little Timmy's bedtime. I think I may have broken that rule once for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_Lemon">Pop Chaser</a>, but it was only 'cause she asked really, really nicely.<br />
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Normally, there were very few souls strong enough to stay awake all night, so most of the time my programming consisted of things that would help keep me awake. Or things fellow members of the con staff or EDC wanted to see. Generally, that meant several hours of newer <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> episodes Jeff Blend hadn't seen yet, or episodes of <em>Dirty Pair</em> or more obscure OVAs like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_(anime)">Birth</a> or <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7091">Greed</a> or Legend of Fabulous Battle <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windaria">Windaria</a> - stuff that wasn't popular enough to make the regular video schedules. Because I was basically the boss, I could choose to simply step in and change programs if no one was watching. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TQ-ko4xTI/AAAAAAAAATc/muY-Mejq1t0/s1600-h/Roberts+176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TQ-ko4xTI/AAAAAAAAATc/muY-Mejq1t0/s400/Roberts+176.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Mitsuyoshi the cel salesman!</span><br />
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</div>Also about this time, I was itching to finally get out of Texas and actually go about actually MEETING some of these people I wrote letters to and spent hour talking to on the phone. Mitsuyoshi had decided that he'd like to maybe make money selling animation cels and was likewise itching to, as they say, come to America, it only for a visit. So we started looking at the upcoming convention schedule to see what might work best for both of us, since San Antonio would never be mistaken for a major sf/comic book convention kind of destination. About this time, Randy Stukey was thinking along the same lines because he was also developing some long-distance friendships, and being an sf fan first and foremost, his first thought was a Worldcon. I'd never attended a Worldcon per se, but Ray Elliot was nice enough to let me use his Nasfic '85 membership for the con in Austin when he couldn't make it, so I wasn't exactly unfamiliar with it either. It just so happened that year's Worldcon was in England, so Phoenix, Arizona was awarded the Nasfic for '87. This seemed pretty doable for all of us, so I sat down and shot off a letter to the con staff and asked about the availability for volunteer positions on the videoroom staff, not realizing I was ALREADY in contact with the guy who was in charge of the videoroom via my tape trading networking.<br />
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Just the way things seem to work back then. It was like a Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing, with letters and phone calls instead of movie credits. <br />
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A few months go by and we all make necessary arrangements to meet up in Phoenix in September for the con. Mitsuyoshi sends me an absolutely gorgeous Misa Hayase cel from <em>Macross: DYRL</em> that I manage to auction off and it pays for my flight. There and back. God Bless Carl Macek. Yeah, I'm easy. Turns out I get put in charge of the overnight shift in the vidroom and they'll let me pretty much run it however I want to, except with equipment that I've never ever had access to before and probably never will again. Life is sweet.<br />
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So the weekend of the con finally rolls around and Randy and I head for the airport. We get on the plane and THEN he informs me he hates flying. Is absolutely scared to death of airplanes. Great. I'm not so keen on flying myself, not having flown in about a decade, but I end up having to be the rational one, which (if you knew either of us) happened maybe once a year. The armrest between us somehow manages to survive the flight to Dallas and then there's enough downtime in Dallas to recuperate before flying to Phoenix. I pass the time pointing out all of the landforms between Texas and Arizona 'cause I lived half my life in West Texas and New Mexico and it's a cheaper way of staying sane than drinking airplane booze. White Sands looks absolutely fabulous from 20,000 feet, btw.<br />
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By the time we get to the hotel, it's almost time to go BACK to the airport to get Mitsuyoshi, who was flying America West. Luckily for me, my con staff contact whom I'm staying with (and I'm really blanking on his name, here and it really bothers me) agrees to take me to go pick him up while Randy checks into his room. We get back to the airport and I finally meet Mitsuyoshi face to face. He's tall. As in, really, really tall. As in, over six foot tall. And distracted. In general, it's true that the Japanese I've met have been reserved when compared to Americans, but you could tell immediately that something was bothering him. Turns out, the airline had misplaces his luggage. Including the suitcase full of animation cels he was hoping to sell at the convention. Now, I'd later have a career in the hospitality industry, so I would become accustomed to airlines and lost luggage, but it's still hard to imagine what goes through someone's head when they're in a foreign country and at the mercy of baggage handlers. Considering the flight had originated in Japan, even if he got it all back, he couldn't even be certain it would be in time (or condition) to do him much good. All in all, the airline was lucky he was so "reserved." I think I'd have been yelling and screaming. But that's just me.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TR2XHdzuI/AAAAAAAAATk/27-6Msp6iYk/s1600-h/Roberts+177.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TR2XHdzuI/AAAAAAAAATk/27-6Msp6iYk/s400/Roberts+177.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Have absolutely no clue what show this is from. I just needed a pic of one of his cels.</span><br />
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</div>We convinced him that sticking around the airport wouldn't be productive, so he agreed to come back to the hotel with us and check in. To make a long story short, the bags showed up later that night (they'd just missed the connecting flight in LA), and he was happily showing his wares to interested customers in his hotel room the next day. Unfortunately for him, this WAS a Nasfic and not a comic book or anime convention, so there wasn't nearly the audience or money there could've been but word eventually got out and he managed to sell enough to pay for most of his trip. Or that was the impression I got. You know, that "reserved" thing again.<br />
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In any case, the con started that next day. Randy and I split up - he went off with Pat Munson-Siter and his sf/anime friends and I palled around with Mitsuyoshi and a few guys I'd met through Phoenix anime fandom. There was only one anime fandom panel scheduled during the entire con, but I finally met Fred Patten in person, among various other people I'd only read about through newsletters. We went out for lunch and stopped by a Church's Fried Chicken and bought a box to go. Mitsuyoshi's eyes went wide and he kept repeating something like "It's so cheap" over and over again, which reminded me to cut back on my meat consumption if I ever decided to visit Japan. <br />
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Back at the con, I stopped by the video room to see what I'd be dealing with later that night. I'd never seen anything like it. One of the local Phoenix anime buffs had lent his equipment to the room for the con and it was an absolutely amazing experience for this low-budget anime bum. A box of commercial vids and laser discs straight from Japan - full of really good stuff, mixed together with turkeys not worth it at a quarter of the price. The place was set up like a home video theater, except with cheap hotel chairs. Six speakers. A projected screen television. Someone certainly had a lot of money to spend on his hobby. For 1987, it was quite a sight.<br />
<br />
Mentally, I'm thinking all through the day about what I'm gonna show. When I see the arrangements, half of the possibilities go straight out the window - hell, I'm not going to insult all this nice equipment by showing third generation, tracking-challenged TV episodes of anything, no matter how rare the material is. Luckily, I'd brought a good number of the tapes Mitsuyoshi'd sent me that he'd copied right off his television set, so there wasn't any chance of running out of material, just that it was rather limited. As fate would have it, he'd also brought a few more new ones with him to give me and some of them had OVAs he'd managed to record just recently. I dunno if they still have this service currently in Japan, but back in the day, there were apparently video stores that would copy videos for you and charge you a fee depending on the number of minutes in the productions. I always assumed that they were set up this way legally, but never really asked. <br />
<br />
In any case, among the videos that he'd copied for us was one labelled "<em>Yoju Toshi</em>" and all I knew about it was that Mitsuyoshi said it was just released and that it was good. I'd neither heard nor read anything about it, which wasn't unusual in the least. OVAs were coming out right and left during that time period and unless we got a certain recommendation from someone who knew what they were talking about or it got heavy play in the monthly anime mags, we were flying blind. Such it was with this one. What the hell, I figured, it was new, so at least it wasn't gonna ruin the equipment. If it turned out to be boring, I could always stop the sucker and pop in something else before too many people evacuated the room.<br />
<br />
Not that clearing the room would've been difficult. I took over about midnight and there were, by my count, a whole seven people in the room, five of whom seemed to be using it as a place to crash. That probably wasn't all that unusual for the time period - it was a sf convention, after all. So I turned the lights up a bit, introduced myself and spelled out the way I liked to do things, gave them the usual speech about if they wanted to see anything in particular to come up and talk to me, then mangled the name of the new video I was gonna pop in, turned down the lights and started the show.<br />
<br />
Now, I'd looked over the schedule up to that point and they'd shown nothing more lethal than the <em>Macross: Do You Remember Love</em> up to that point in the day, so if you've seen <em>Wicked City</em>, you might guess what's coming next. I certainly couldn't, having absolutely no clue about what I was <a href="http://www.awopodcast.com/2008/05/anime-world-order-show-69b-setting.html">popping</a> into the VCR. I went about rummaging through the laser disks, marvelling at how much money these guys had to spend on cartoon stuff and when I finally looked up at the nice projection screen, the first thing I saw was the part where Taki's getting attacked by the spider demon and suddenly NO ONE in the room is sleeping anymore. The fanboys are too busy making sure their respective favorite organs are where they're supposed to be, if you know what I mean. Me, I'm wondering what in the hell I've done and whether or not I'm gonna get in trouble for it. It's not exactly <em>Cream Lemon Rall</em> or <em>Urotsukidoji</em> material here, but about as close as these geeks have probably seen. As soon as the scene is over, two of the seven guys get up and zip out of the room, so I figure, what the hell, there's only five left and they're probably too scared to complain anyway, 'cause they'd have to admit they were there to sleep - not that they're snoozing after THAT particular scene. And, besides, I'm actually kinda digging this thing. And I'll NEVER get to see it on such a nice screen ever again. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TSfzBiHgI/AAAAAAAAATs/pD39qzCw3IY/s1600-h/Wicked_City_-_Spider_Woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="267" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S3TSfzBiHgI/AAAAAAAAATs/pD39qzCw3IY/s400/Wicked_City_-_Spider_Woman.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">This gal might just put you off puttin' it in...like forever.</span><br />
<br />
</div>Anyway, five to ten minutes go by and the two guys who high-tailed it out of the room come BACK - bringing five or six more guys with them. They all gang up at the front of the room and start mumbling to each other. Finally, one of them comes up to me and asks me if I can start the movie over. I tell 'em if it were just us, I'd have no problem with it, but there are the other five guys in the room who might have a problem with it. So this guy goes to each and every one of 'em until they all say they'd LOVE to see some animated siren turn into a spider with teeth where her hoochie should be all over again. Hey, who am I to argue? So, while I'm rewinding the tape, two or three of the guys run straight out of the room and ask me if I can hold off for about five more minutes, so they can go wake up their buddies. <br />
<br />
By the time the film is through, there are no less than twenty people in this video room at 2am, watching this semi-porn animated horror film that no one can understand a word of. I think there may have even been one gal there, though I doubt she'd ever admit it. It's the damndest thing that's ever happened to me in 15 years of anime vidrooms. I like to think that I ruined the lives of at least five people that night. If nothing else, they didn't get a whole lot of sleep.<br />
<br />
The rest of the con went by fairly uneventfully and if anyone else showed up overnight expecting an escallation of the experience from the night before, they were disappointed. I just wasn't gonna take that chance. I did give out my address to a few people who definitely wanted copies of "that video," and I made sure to let the Phoenix guys know it was something that they just HAD to get on laserdisk. Heh.<br />
<br />
So I still have a soft spot in my heart for <em>Yoju Toshi</em>, even after all these years. I've just learned to never, NEVER stick anything in that I haven't screened first. Uh, video and otherwise.RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-9377875805611318102010-02-08T03:41:00.001-06:002010-02-08T03:50:05.757-06:00Movies Fights Comics!! Kenshiro Strikes Three in America!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qJx5n_ZQI/AAAAAAAAASE/jjco_P78mts/s1600-h/Roberts+160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qJx5n_ZQI/AAAAAAAAASE/jjco_P78mts/s400/Roberts+160.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Kenshiro can't go undercover, even in his feature film. The eyebrows always give him away.</span></div><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming to America</span><br />
<br />
By 1986, Kenshiro was well on his way to conquering Japan - the weekly manga was so popular that the editors of <em>Shonen Jump</em> had extended the run for a couple more years, and the Toei anime series was in full swing. On this side of the Pacific, not so much. I was working in a comic shop at the time, and had access to the (few) copies of Japanese anime mags ordered through Books Nippan in California (at the time, pretty much the only wholesale outlet available for retailers not located in the larger cities) and so I kept my eyes peeled for any merchandise that my happen to pop up there. Unfortunately, aside from the monthly anime magazines, there wasn't a whole lot left over after the regular Books Nippan customers got finished with the arrivals. My boss was nice enough to let me call Kevin Seymour(sp) in California every so often to see what overstock they had, but the well was usually pretty dry.<br />
<br />
And the anime mags themselves were pretty expensive, so we could only order enough to cover the two or three customers who would buy them no matter what they were featuring that month. Since no one could read Japanese, the few who bought it did so mainly for the pictures. No kidding. Ten bucks or sometimes more for a bunch of pictures, most of which were basically advertisements for whatever Nippon Sunrise was selling that particular month, with the added bonus of <em>Animage</em> covering the most recent Miyazaki film. It really was slim pickings back then, though the beggers and choosers rule applied. Plus, the Miyazaki stuff was actually pretty cool. And you'd get small folded posters and occasional other goodies as inserts, provided they hadn't fallen out somewhere between Japan and Texas. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I had a standing arrangement with the folks who bought the things that I could look through them when they came in and I took full advantage, generally looking out for <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> news, which was really hard to come by. But in the early parts of '86, I started seeing ads or promos for some kind of HnK project that was different from the anime series. The only reason I knew it was different was because the artwork was different. I got on the phone with Tomoaki and he mentioned he knew a feature film was in some stage of development, but wasn't exactly sure of the details. He was more a manga kinda guy and wasn't really into the anime part of it. So I wrote Mitsuyoshi and asked him to keep an eye out for what news he could give me, and by the middle of the year, he wrote back and told me that the film had already opened and closed and he had no idea when it would be released on video. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qYEfpz1lI/AAAAAAAAASM/LOMJBPtzLOs/s1600-h/Roberts+162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qYEfpz1lI/AAAAAAAAASM/LOMJBPtzLOs/s400/Roberts+162.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Kennnnnnn!!!! Make them release your movie!</span></div><br />
Well, needless to say, I was stoked. Unfortunately, it'd be over a year before I'd get any more news about an impending video release. Talk about hell. In the meantime, he sent me a few copies of what he called a "movie program" book, which I was left to assume was sold at the box offices and later in stores. I would post a pic of it here, but I gave them all away. Even mine. Sigh. So you'll have to settle for a <a href="http://www.fistofthenorthstar.it/moviep.html">link</a> to the page of that Italian collector who has pretty much everything. <br />
<br />
When I finally got word that the film was finally going to be released on video, it was almost 1988. But that wasn't the worst part of it. That would be the purchase price. 13,800 yen. Now, when I first got into the anime thing, the exchange rate was almost 200 yen to the dollar. Unfortunately, sometime during the mid-80s, our government caught onto us anime and manga fans and decided we were getting too sweet a deal. Or something. By 1988, the rate had dropped by a quarter, and would go down even further before the decade was out. With postage and such, we we were almost paying straight up 100 yen to $1.00 by the time 1990 came around - at least when the middleman's cut was taken out. Luckily for us, Mitsuyoshi wasn't interested in turning a profit, on this kind of thing, anyway. But, still, 14,000 yen was a LOT of money for a bunch of geeks with minimum wage jobs. <br />
<br />
So, I got on the phone with Jeff Blend and a few others (including Randy Stukey, who threw in twenty bucks just 'cause that's the kind of guy he was) and we decided to go co-op on a VHS copy. We'd throw in together and pass the copy around to each other so we'd all get 1st gen copies and enough time with the tape to make all sorts of extras for tape trading buddies. Of course, since this WAS HnK, we figured there wouldn't be a whole lot of copies we'd have to make. As I mentioned last post, the series really wasn't much of a hit with the American fans back then. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qeL-RLpOI/AAAAAAAAASU/RSVLGWIwXsA/s1600-h/Roberts+170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qeL-RLpOI/AAAAAAAAASU/RSVLGWIwXsA/s400/Roberts+170.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">A relic from the ancient past - a VHS commercial copy.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As I look at this thing now, I honestly cannot tell you a whole lot about it. Or nothing that you can't get from a web site synopsis and watching it on youtube or wherever. Yes, the violence is blurred But, then, so is my memory. Part of me wants to pop it in the nearest tape player and watch it, since I've not seen it in twenty years. Another part of me worries it'll get ripped to shreds 'cause I haven't been near a VCR that's been properly maintained in a decade. Not that it would matter, since VHS really isn't collectable as such. I've watched the "Raoh wins" <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY43kORDTTY">ending</a> a few times elsewhere and honestly still think that looks strange. Ken just doesn't belong face down on the ground while Lin talks to Raoh. It's just...unreal. There was so much about this movie that I remember liking the first time around - and much of it that I just didn't care for at all. The soundtrack is cool enough. "Heart of Madness" still <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhIboLTb_cM">rocks</a> around inside my head from time to time. I really remember being pissed 'cause Toki and Mamiya were left out, but Jagi got a nice chunk of screentime. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But I think my fondest memory of this was just being able to hold it in my hand, knowing I was going to actually see it in pristine form - the same way a fan in Japan would. In 1988. Most of you reading this probably can't understand how great a feeling that was back then because you now take it as a given. But it was a huge thing to me. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have fuzzy memories of Streamline buying and running the film during the '90s, but I never saw that version. And really have no inclination to. There was talk of one of the few groups that were doing subtitles back then borrowing our copy to use as a master, but I don't think anything ever came of that either. I don't remember any subtitled copies of the film at all. Which is probably just as well - as I mention elsewhere, HnK just was not especially popular here during the '80s and '90s. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Multiple Manga Misfires</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One of the benefits of working at a comic book shop was having access to the catalogs of upcoming releases. I was still heavily into collecting American comics back in '87, so I generally had a handle on the various comic book publishers and what they were putting out. The late '80s saw what we referred to back then as the beginning of the "black and white boom," a period where everyone and their brothers were putting out badly-drawn black and white comics (color was comparably expensive to do in the days before computer coloring), usually featuring some variation of "mutant animal" in the title. The distribution movement from mom&pop outlets, grocery stores, and drug stores (with revolving racks) toward specialized stores that sold comic books almost exclusively meant that publishers didn't have to deal with anyone other than one or two major distributors, and as long as they agreed to sell your book sight unseen, you were good to go. Talk about Wild Wild West. Anything went, and some of it actually sold to customers hoping to hoard all the copies of "Goofy Giraffes With Silly Swords" in the hopes they'd magically turn into mutant turtles somehow. Basically, it was the housing bubble two decades earlier. And it worked out about as well. But, that's getting away...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the midst of all those "mutant" whatevers, this was also the time when the Japanese manga titles started being translated and released by American companies. So imagine my surprise when one day, I open the solicitation package and see this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qpQaK3i-I/AAAAAAAAASc/fAfbKvuN25U/s1600-h/Roberts+164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qpQaK3i-I/AAAAAAAAASc/fAfbKvuN25U/s400/Roberts+164.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Too good to be true, right?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Well, as soon as I pick my jaw up off the table, the alarm bells start going off. The solicitation itself looks legit. Pretty nice, in fact, for the time period, especially from a small independent outfit. Yellow paper. Two pages, front and back, with illos obviously taken from the manga. Buronson and Tetsuo Hara and Shueisha Publishing credited.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qr4XBiZXI/AAAAAAAAASk/Ma1Omvn68X8/s1600-h/Roberts+165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2qr4XBiZXI/AAAAAAAAASk/Ma1Omvn68X8/s400/Roberts+165.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Bloosh!?" Yeah, that's about what I thought.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;">Still, I can't shut off those alarm bells ringing around inside my head. Okay, so they're marketing "Ken Shiro" as a "superhero." No problem, one could still total up the non-superhero titles on the shelves at the time on one's fingers and toes. No, the real problem was with the publisher. As in, I'd never heard of these guys before - an outfit called "Angel Comics." Whereas almost all the manga and anime wholesalers I knew of were based in California, this company had an address in New Jersey. Okay, I'm still an optimist at heart at this point in time, though part of the nagging in the back of my head comes from the fact that I know how popular Hokuto no Ken is with the anime fanbase here in the US. As in, not at all. Who the hell are these people expecting to sell to? And even if they are legit, what kind of numbers can they possibly expect to draw that would satisfy the rights holders in Japan? Yeah, okay, I'll buy 10 copies, but who will buy the other hundred thousand?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S20kVbjJOCI/AAAAAAAAASs/NEH5ZS_vm6w/s1600-h/Roberts+166.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S20kVbjJOCI/AAAAAAAAASs/NEH5ZS_vm6w/s400/Roberts+166.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Heh, these guys exaggerate about this more than I did.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, first thing I did when I got home is I picked up the phone and called just about everyone I knew and asked them about this thing. Everyone knew just as much as I did. Even Fred Patten, who had a nose for this kind of thing, knew nothing about Angel Comics, but did say that Eclipse/Viz was looking to expand their output and, as far as he knew, they had the rights to all the Shueisha titles, including <em>Hokuto no Ken.</em> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To make a long story short, months went by and "Angel Comics" actually solicited for two months worth of material in the distributor's catalogs, then were never heard from again. I can't say it surprised me. To this day, I'm not sure exactly what it was all about and the only firm evidence I could find about the incident was in the <em>Viz-In</em> newsletter a year later after Viz had announced their intention to publish HnK. They described "Angel Comics" as an "obscure publisher" who had solicited a "pirated version," but were thankfully stopped for the good of all, etc. et al. And that's probably as close to the truth as we're likely to get. As someone who would be later involved in a similar situation involving the <em>Captain Harlock</em> license and some shady operation called "Coral Pictures" out of Florida, I can sympathize. I can't emphasize enough how chaotic it was back then, with the Japanese companies apparently not much interested in cracking the American market, and with pirates of all kinds taking full advantage of the situation. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S20rCtLMbkI/AAAAAAAAAS0/-ynIC3iGXtI/s1600-h/Roberts+167.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S20rCtLMbkI/AAAAAAAAAS0/-ynIC3iGXtI/s400/Roberts+167.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Okay, let's try this again, shall we?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">About this same time, Viz, who had co-published manga titles with Eclipse Comics, decided to go it alone, sensing the American market was slowly growing large enough to support more titles. I dunno whether or not the Angel Comics thing pushed them into choosing HnK as one of those early titles, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. In announcing the new "<em>Fist of the North Star</em>" comic, Viz head honcho Seiji Horibuchi would declare it "...probably the most influential manga of the eighties." </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, of course, it lasted all of eight issues.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2_PofrjUBI/AAAAAAAAAS8/5CD4w6M67EU/s1600-h/Roberts+172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2_PofrjUBI/AAAAAAAAAS8/5CD4w6M67EU/s400/Roberts+172.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">You are already cancelled!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">But, hey, I did my part. I bought 10 issues. Of course, my boss at the comic store looked at me like I was nuts.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I remember sitting down with Satoru Fujii, who did the translation work on that first run, in San Diego in the early '90s and having a discussion about why that original comic didn't catch on better. All the standard theories at the time - the time for manga wasn't quite here yet, the comic was too violent, true "mangaphiles" don't like "flipped manga," etc had a bit of truth to them so far as it went. But mostly it came back to that bugaboo that all true HnK fans know and realize deep down - the "good stuff" - the heart of what makes <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> appeal to us, isn't apparent until roughly a third of the way through the story. It's one thing to tell someone "hey, wait until Toki and Raoh show up," when you can just whip out an episode or comic to prove it, but it's totally another to maintain sales of a bi-weekly or (worse) monthly comic up until that point. And you can't just "skip" translating certain parts of the manga, as appealing as that may be. Up until the introduction of Rei, the manga stories are, let's be honest, pretty repetitive stuff. It's not as quite as bad as the anime, with filler (and stories adapted from later) so that it takes 20 episodes just to get to the Shin fight, but it's hardly earth-shattering material that's going to make some non-Ken fan think there's a reason the story is going to get any different a year or two on down the line. Basically, if the first five or six issues don't grab you, there's little reason to think that's going to change.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Viz dipped back into the water later in the '90s, getting as far as halfway through the Rei storyline before again finding sales hard to come by. Or maybe it was my fault. I only bought two copies of each of these.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2_QDqktsnI/AAAAAAAAATE/pVAeCZ8NPrU/s1600-h/Roberts+173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2_QDqktsnI/AAAAAAAAATE/pVAeCZ8NPrU/s400/Roberts+173.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Would've loved to have been in the editorial meeting when they picked the cover for this one. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Who's the guy on the cover?" </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"That's Kenshiro's brother."</div>"Is he in the issue?"<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"No, he doesn't show up for another year."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"So, why's he on the cover again?"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"It looks cool. Plus, we're running out of color cover material."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"You think anyone will notice he's not in the comic."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Eh, American comics have been doing this kind of thing for decades."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Yeah, no one's gonna care."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Guess what? Yeah, no one cared. I probably could've saved them the trouble, but at least they tried. The actual reproduction on these varied from adequate to awful, usually depending on the tonework that Hara used on the originals. The more tonework, the worse the reproduction. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I totally missed out on the Gutsoon attempt during the aughts, so I can't really speak to those, but I understand they also couldn't manage to make it terribly far into the run before collapsing. It's a shame, really (for manga fans, anyway), but I suppose it's a good thing that the companies streaming the anime didn't have to sell the thing episode by episode in order to make the whole series available, because it may never have gotten done. For newer fans of <em>Hokuto no Ken</em>, that's probably the only way they're ever going to see the meat of the series translated legally. And for all its faults, the anime doesn't diverge all that far from the manga during the important arcs. In fact, in some places (cough, Juuza, cough) I actually prefer it. I once did a couple columns on the major differences between the manga and anime, but damned if I can find 'em...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I didn't know where to put this bit in the last two blog posts, so I'll just throw it in here at the end. A lot of people are aware of the Gary Daniels' "<em>Fist of the North Star</em>" live-action film from the '90s. I've not seen it, and have no pressing need to see it. One night when I'm really, really drunk, maybe I'll check out a scene or two on youtube. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But die-hard '80s <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> fans know the very first Kenshiro live-action film rip-off. Made in either Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Korea (I mercifully forget which), it came out in the mid '80s and made the rounds among the fans over here who were either heavily into HnK or (more likely) Asian martial arts films in general. I used to show parts of it during my late-night version of what some of you guys might now call "Anime Hell" back in the '80s in convention video rooms. Especially popular (read: lots of laughing and hooting) were the scenes of Kenshiro vs a bunch of guys on scooters (I guess motorcycles would've put them over budget), and the climactic fight with Shin where they actually animated (badly) Ken's shirt flying off. On the good side...well, the kid they got to play Bat was spot-on. Of all my tapes I gave away, that's one of them I wish I'd kept.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-86267527426094939742010-02-02T16:08:00.034-06:002010-02-04T17:59:44.481-06:00Twenty Five Years Fights Kenshiro! The All About Man Punishes Old Typewriting!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KTP2zPvWI/AAAAAAAAAPk/xqxUOAhrYqs/s1600-h/Roberts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KTP2zPvWI/AAAAAAAAAPk/xqxUOAhrYqs/s400/Roberts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Yeah. I'm looking at you."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">My Twenty-Five Year Love Affair with Kenshiro </span><span style="font-size: small;">(or does this headline make me look gay?)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It all started in Ben Dunn's living room, sometime during the winter of 1985. A bunch of us would gather there a few times a month to play Champions or just hang out and watch third or fourth generation anime vids Ben had managed to gather from here there and everywhere. In between the giant robots slugging it out and Dr. Slump potty jokes, the first episode of a peculiar anime came on. Something the likes of which I'd certainly never seen before among the anime shows Ben had introduced us to. It was slowly paced, with the requisite too cute by half little girl (complete with puppy), a boy who yakked way too much and a bunch of escapees from the latest Mad Max movie riding around on motorcycles. About halfway through this mishmash of B-movie tropes, something even more peculiar happened: one of the brutish thugs' head blew clean off. Being a Cronenberg fanatic, my first thought was, of course, that in addition to <em>The Road Warrior</em> and Bruce Lee flicks, the folks who were responsible for this one must've been huge fans of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners">"Scanners."</a> But the whole thing was about to get even more bizarre. By the time Kenshiro let out that first "Atatatat...etc." and unloaded his thousand fists at Zeed, we were all laughing too hard to listen to the village elder explain the finer points of Hokuto Shinken to the audience. Not that we'd have understood anyway, since none of us spoke a word of Japanese. The general consensus of the show was that it was curious and good for a couple of laughs, but that lasted a whole minute or two and we fast-forwarded the tape to the next episode of <em>Aura Battler Dunbine</em> or whatever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still, there was something about it that stuck with me after I'd left to go home later that night. That animation was no great shakes and I wasn't at all interested in martial arts films, and after all the goofy fists were unleashed on the thugs with the Zs on their heads, all thoughts of this guy being a scanner who spent all his time at the post-apocalyptic gym went right out the window. Still, the show was...different. Yeah, it was a mash-up of the familiar, plot-wise, but...then it hit me. It was the character designs and the artwork. I would be told over and over and over again during my early days in anime fandom that the artwork on <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> is "ugly" and that prevented a lot of people from getting into it, as if it didn't really fit into the "anime" style, whatever the hell that was. As someone who grew up with Neal Adams, Steranko, and Jack Kirby, it seemed an odd objection, but since much of the appeal of anime and manga on this side of the Pacific is in the artistic differences between American and Japanese sensibilities, I guess it might be explained that way. In any case, there was enough there to pique my curiousity as to exactly what would get such a "different" show made in the first place. And that thought stayed in the back of my brain.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KxgjKc2vI/AAAAAAAAAPs/Gmrd-4ad9s8/s1600-h/Roberts+139.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KxgjKc2vI/AAAAAAAAAPs/Gmrd-4ad9s8/s400/Roberts+139.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Who are you calling 'ugly'?"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, we were so clueless that we didn't even have an idea what the bloody thing was called. Something with "Fist" in the title. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I was going through a C/FO publication of one kind or another where I noticed the LA chapter was showing something called "<em>Fist of the North Star</em>" in their meetings, that I figured my mystery show had a name, so I wouldn't embarrass myself when asking around for more episodes. Assuming, of course, that there were more episodes. I seriously had no way of knowing, even the most basic of information being extremely difficult to come by back in those days. Enter Mary Kennard. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mary is one of those under-the radar angels for whom American anime fandom owes a great debt - the rare early anime/manga fan with contacts, enthusiasm, a bit of understanding of the Japanese language and, most importantly, the willingness to use them all to help others without asking for an arm and a leg in return. Plus, she had a killer tape collection. And, amazingly enough, she LOVED <em>Hokuto no Ken.</em> I can't remember where I originally got her phone number from, but she helped the C/FO-San Antonio tape collection get started and, more importantly for myself, personally, shaped the way I deal with others in the fandom. She'd answer my questions to the best of her abilities and knowledge and absolutely loved doing so. If it weren't for Mary Kennard, you wouldn't be reading this. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, it turned out she had most of the HnK episodes up to that point and patiently explained to me about Shin, Toki, Mamiya, and especially Rei. Turns out she was a huge Kaneto Shiozawa fan. It was...interesting to hear her go on about Japanese voice actors while talking to a guy who didn't know shit about much of anything. I guess that's part of the definition of a true fan. Anyway, she sent me the later Rei episodes, right up to that fatal showdown with Raoh, which was just a month or so behind the anime episodes airing in Japan. Between her explanations and actually seeing those episodes, I was hooked. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KyPq4Jc_I/AAAAAAAAAP0/D8_S7tuhdGI/s1600-h/Roberts+140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KyPq4Jc_I/AAAAAAAAAP0/D8_S7tuhdGI/s400/Roberts+140.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"My, that's a big...horse you have."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">About that time, C/FO-San Antonio got in the thick of things in North American fandom and I was trading tapes like crazy. I had contacted Mitsuyoshi in <a href="http://hokutonofogie.blogspot.com/2010/01/great-original-story-country-singer.html">Japan</a> and he'd agreed to tape TV anime for us, which meant we sometimes got episodes of stuff before any of my other contacts, which meant even MORE tape trading. The first batch of tapes I got from him included the great Rei death episode and the beginning of the Shuu/Souther arc, which just totally blew me away. I mean, I was REALLY heavy into this thing now. Unfortunately, even armed with my sparkling personality and first generation episodes of what I had come to believe was a real phenom here, I just could not get anyone else interested in this show. It just wasn't happening. "Real" anime fans were into mecha and <em>Dirty Pair</em> and <em>Urusei Yatsura</em>, not mystical martial artist who made heads explode. With "ugly" artwork. <em>Saint Seiya</em> was all the rage. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On this side of the Pacific, anyway. Basically, near as I could tell, <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> fandom consisted of Mary, Jeff Blend, Tim Eldred, Laurine White, Steven Barnes. And me. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The C/FO had a listing for "favorite anime" in the membership directory and out of the total membership, fewer than 10 people listed <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> among their favorites. It was a really tough time to be a manly man among men. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then, in 1986, three things happened, creating the perfect storm for this particular fanboy. The feature film was released in Japan. I got in touch with Tomoaki Okuzumi, a Japanese native (and <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> fan) living in California. And the Shonen Jump "<em>All About the Man</em>" book was released by Shueisha. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KzE3wzf-I/AAAAAAAAAP8/Ht4kihTTSc8/s1600-h/Roberts+141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2KzE3wzf-I/AAAAAAAAAP8/Ht4kihTTSc8/s400/Roberts+141.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">The Rosetta Stone</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm going to get into the <em>HnK</em> movie in another blog post. In a strange turn of events, Tomoaki got in touch with me, instead of the other way around. I guess he found my name in one of the C/FO publications, I don't know if I ever asked him where or how he found me. But he did. I guess the stars were all lined up just right. Without him, none of those early <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> translations would have gotten done. He'd call me up on the phone and we'd sometimes talk for more than an hour at a time about either what had come before or what was currently happening in the weekly <em>Shonen Jump</em>, which he got from relatives in Japan. I guess he either had a really good job or just really loved talking Kenshiro. For whatever his reasons, his efforts were greatly appreciated. When I had questions about this or that, he'd occasionally send me actual <em>Jump</em> pages from the weeklies when a new character was introducted along with written translations of song lyrics and such. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And then one day, out of the blue, an extremely large package came in the mail, and it wasn't from Mitsuyoshi, but from Tomoaki. Inside was, quite simply, the most important part of the puzzle that was <em>Hokuto no Ken </em>yet released, aside from the actual running manga. And quite a bargain at 390 yen, I might add. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fX0MhxHoI/AAAAAAAAAQE/mS4K0MBKSYk/s1600-h/Roberts+144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fX0MhxHoI/AAAAAAAAAQE/mS4K0MBKSYk/s400/Roberts+144.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Everything you ever wanted to know about kumo no Juuza, except maybe the size of his package.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, I've sure there have been more colorfull and more detailed <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> books released over the subsequent 20+ years, but not many would prove more useful. It had inverviews with Tetsuo Hara and Buronson, color-pullouts of paintings which would later become the covers of HnK books both in Japan and elsewhere around the globe, detailed character pics and discriptions of martial arts styles, a nifty reprinting of the original Ken story from <em>Fresh Jump</em>, facts and figures about the man himself and so much other Hokuto heavenliness that when I first opened it, I'm sure they felt the fanboy orgasm all the way to Kansas. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fdZkXEJZI/AAAAAAAAAQM/evNugXYUJKg/s1600-h/Roberts+145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fdZkXEJZI/AAAAAAAAAQM/evNugXYUJKg/s400/Roberts+145.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Want to know how long he can hold his breath? There's an app for that!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now I understand that the <em>All About the Man Special</em> has been reprinted a few times in Japan since the original release in '86 and I'm sure more detailed books have come out since then (this one only covers up to Raoh's death), but a recent scan of ebay shows this puppy is still getting bids of forty bucks or so, which isn't bad for a cover price of 390 yen! "What a bargain!" Anyway, I still think it's fairly required to have this puppy in your collection if you're a completist, but the rarity and price thing can certainly be a hindrance, especially to those who came into the series because of the new animation a few years back. For whatever reason, Shueisha and Toei didn't release a whole lot of supplemental material for the manga and anime during their first runs, compared to the products of other companies, but I'm certainly glad if there had to be an exception, it was an important one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fhcvGGY5I/AAAAAAAAAQU/NGhDjtQNFxY/s1600-h/Roberts+143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2fhcvGGY5I/AAAAAAAAAQU/NGhDjtQNFxY/s400/Roberts+143.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Dunno why Raoh has a weapon here, seems just a tad redundant.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A welcome side-effect of the <em>All About the Man</em> book, at least for us would-be HnK evangelists, was it collected a lot of the needed reference material from the manga in one place. No longer would you have to scan back over the manga volumes or anime episodes to find the name of, say, Rei's Nanto art (nanto sui cho ken), because it was right there on his page, along with his governing star (gi sei). In addition, it cleared up the whole Shin thing, since neither the name of his actual art nor his governing star were given in his original manga arc - just one of the many things they added as they went along. But, thanks to the good folk at Shueisha, all of that was now cleared up, assuming you had someone who could translate it all, of course. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Which is where Tomoaki came in. Being a fan of HnK as well as fluent in Japanese, he was genuinely interested in helping me impart hokuto knowledge to the unwashed masses over here, whether they wanted it or not. Back in the wild west of anime fandom (1986 or so) the rule wasn't "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." It was more like "If you want something done AT ALL, you have to do it yourself." Basically, the only translations being done were personal pet projects for APAs, the occasional translation guides for conventions like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lawmune/3712797216/">Baycon</a>, small movie or episode synopses for anime club newsletters, and Toren Smith's <em>Urusei Yatsura</em> manga projects with Miyako Graham. People with the skills to translate (and materials to translate from) were working on stuff they liked personally, and not much else. Of course, since there wasn't really any money in it, that was to be expected. Anime and manga fandom was still a very small market, even after <em>Robotech</em> issued in a new wave of fans. Personal computers were still incredibly expensive, word processors weren't a whole lot cheaper, and most work was still being done either by hand or by typewriter. Al Gore had yet to invent the internet as we now know it and even Usenet was still in its infancy. Even communication by telephone could be incredibly expensive, depending on what time of the day or night you were talking. "Snail mail" was the rule, rather than the exception. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But, hey, you do what you can, with what you have. Which is what we did. Armed with the manga, the <em>All About the Man</em> Special, telephones, communication via the US Postal Service, and using my trusty antique manual typewriter and illos by <a href="http://mpc3.com/index.html">Mike Cogliandro</a> (who wasn't really a HnK fan, but a good sport nontheless), Tomoaki and I managed to assemble and distribute what I'm pretty sure was the first <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> guide of any note in English. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gBDewI4mI/AAAAAAAAAQc/dVmpKPg9huY/s1600-h/Roberts+146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gBDewI4mI/AAAAAAAAAQc/dVmpKPg9huY/s400/Roberts+146.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Hokuto no Ken: An Initiate's Guide," circa 1986.</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gBnx5P22I/AAAAAAAAAQk/idkcBPM-PTU/s1600-h/Roberts+147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gBnx5P22I/AAAAAAAAAQk/idkcBPM-PTU/s400/Roberts+147.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">The fanboy hype just oozes out of my typewriter, doesn't it? Oh, to be young and in love.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Looking at this shit now, I'm amazed anyone could do freakin' ANYTHING back then. First I had to take the illos, find a photocopy machine that could reduce them to manageable size, cut and paste them on a blank sheet of paper (and by cutting and pasting, I'm talking scissors and glue stick here), insert them into the manual typewriter, type AROUND the illos, then photocopy the pages again, which is why everything is so faint. Then you have to find a public copy machine that makes good copies, because you have to do one side at a time in order to make double-sided copies. Then you reduce the pages yet again so two pages can fit side by side on a larger sized paper and fit together as a booklet. It's all rather...complicated. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gCXi8zNZI/AAAAAAAAAQs/o_O99BDNeCU/s1600-h/Roberts+148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gCXi8zNZI/AAAAAAAAAQs/o_O99BDNeCU/s400/Roberts+148.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I don't even have any original copies of this thing anymore, what's pictured here are the reprints of a reprint that the C/FO distributed through its newsletter in '87. You can even see Randall Stukey's hand-written page numbers on the bottom of the pages. Or maybe you can't. Sigh. Hey, it this was 1986, okay. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gFlov2HQI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/DogYAKxknYs/s1600-h/Roberts+149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gFlov2HQI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/DogYAKxknYs/s400/Roberts+149.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Manual typewriters don't have spell checkers, obviously.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll put the rest of the pages at the end of this in case anyone reading this hasn't abused their eyes enough with these. If you read the whole thing, you'll see references to an Initiate's Guide, Part 2. Yes, we did that one too, covering the Nanto Go Sha Sei arc, Yuria, and the end of the first series, along with some assorted bits and pieces like martial arts stuff and more song translations. I actually liked it a bit better than the first one, mostly because we learned from our mistakes, but, sadly, I don't have any copies at all of it among the crap I've managed to dig out of boxes, so it may be forever lost to the dustbin of fandom history. Which might not actually be such a bad thing...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Among my other HnK fannish activities during that maniac period of 1984-89 was a round-robin project that worked fairly well for the first round or so before everyone just lost interest. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a round-robin, it was kind of a poor man's <a href="http://letsanime.blogspot.com/2008/08/animanga-apa.html">APA</a>, usefull for smaller groups of fans who don't publish tons of material. Instead of everyone making a bunch of copies of their "trib" and sending them to a specific collator for mass mailing, there's just one package that gets mailed from one participant to the next participant, who then copies whatever he or she wants from the whole, includes his or her contribution to the package, then mails the whole thing to the next person on the list, who does the same, until the package makes it back to the person who started the whole thing, who re-starts the process after replacing his or her original contribution with a new one. This way, everyone only has to make one copy of their material and everyone saves on postage and only have to spring for the copies of stuff they want to keep. Of course the downside is that if the one person who has the package gets lazy...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And, of course, I don't have much material from that either, which is kind of a shame. I remember some fun stuff from that, including a strip from Tim Eldred about Kenshiro and Rei going to McDonalds...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Of course the translation/information game hit its stride in the '90s and never looked back. <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> was no exception in this regard, though the fandom remained smaller than many comparable anime/manga from the time period. When the net exploded during roughly the same time period, web sites like Evan Jacobson's most excellent <a href="http://hokuto.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">Hokuto Renkitoza</a> popped up, making amateurs like me superflous (well, okay, I always wanted to be super at something). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have to admit to feeling a slight depression when I walked by all those arcades with all those kids playing Street Fighter 4 or Mortal Kombat 21 or whatever during the past two decades and thinking to myself "Do these people even know about <em>Hokuto no Ken</em>?" But that pales in comparison to the joy I feel now when I surf the web and realize just how LARGE the fanbase has grown compared to the small handfull of us who eagerly waited for the manga chapters or anime episodes to come out during that original run in the '80s. It just goes to show that quality wins out, whether it takes two months or twenty-five years.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm just happy I lived long enough to finally see it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gReVZhR4I/AAAAAAAAAQ8/o_KegnCeRfg/s1600-h/Roberts+045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gReVZhR4I/AAAAAAAAAQ8/o_KegnCeRfg/s400/Roberts+045.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">How to make the bad guys blow up REAL GOOD!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gTFDC3bDI/AAAAAAAAARE/nMfSKIA-xP4/s1600-h/Roberts+157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gTFDC3bDI/AAAAAAAAARE/nMfSKIA-xP4/s400/Roberts+157.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUCm1s1bI/AAAAAAAAARM/o2cEKD2dNV4/s1600-h/Roberts+156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUCm1s1bI/AAAAAAAAARM/o2cEKD2dNV4/s400/Roberts+156.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hey, at least we didn't forget Jagi existed!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUc_8247I/AAAAAAAAARU/QFiBY2Vzrt8/s1600-h/Roberts+150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUc_8247I/AAAAAAAAARU/QFiBY2Vzrt8/s400/Roberts+150.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">I know this probably still sounds lame, but I plead not guilty on account that it was fucking 1986.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUxxtf2yI/AAAAAAAAARc/1Kv3vcZh554/s1600-h/Roberts+151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gUxxtf2yI/AAAAAAAAARc/1Kv3vcZh554/s400/Roberts+151.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
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</div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gVeVHZ3vI/AAAAAAAAARs/9BYPB-cu_Ng/s1600-h/Roberts+154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gVeVHZ3vI/AAAAAAAAARs/9BYPB-cu_Ng/s400/Roberts+154.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Notice the "Sauzer" spelling. We did that waaay back in '86 just to piss off Daryl Surat, who was probably all of 10 years old at the time.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gWnnOXj6I/AAAAAAAAAR0/G6H3yCXfoTM/s1600-h/Roberts+155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S2gWnnOXj6I/AAAAAAAAAR0/G6H3yCXfoTM/s400/Roberts+155.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hell, we even did lame song translations!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Credit where credit is due. In this case, to Dudley Do-All, Mister Jeff Blend. The second biggest HnK fan I knew back then.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next up: The Movie and the comics. Or, how Kenshiro found America a LOT tougher to conquer than Asura.</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-56296211682325228422010-01-29T15:27:00.000-06:002010-01-29T15:27:15.818-06:00Godzilland Attacks Cool Stuff! Say Hellow to Comic Saurs Story!!!Okay, before I get started I want to introduce everybody to someone.<br />
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He ought to be here any moment now. Yeah, I hear him, breathing fire and smoke as he passes the bathroom. The carpet is getting warm. <br />
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The sofa is shaking. Excuse me while I grab my drink off the computer hutch before it spills. He's a little worse for wear, but I'm always glad to see him, even if he's a bit pissed at me for leaving him buried in that big box for so long. Years, in fact. Almost a decade. I hear him behind me. And I turn around slowly with my camera...it's...it's him. Yes, directly from the monsters' paradise itself...it's everyone's favorite walking yellow bag o' fun...the "king of monster," measuring in at 450mm X 430 mm...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Godzilland!</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_1Rniv9FI/AAAAAAAAANw/2_TpczroRrY/s1600-h/Roberts+135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_1Rniv9FI/AAAAAAAAANw/2_TpczroRrY/s400/Roberts+135.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>And, kids, you know what this means, right? <br />
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Another episode of extremely cool and unnecessarily little dumb anime things from the "Comic Saurs Story!" Yaaaaaaay!!!!<br />
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So, Mr. Godzilland, sir, what do you have for us today? <br />
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Oh, really. Sorry to hear that. Seems he's a bit winded from swimming over from the "happy islet!" At his age, that's expected. Heck, I carried him from one convention to another for ten whole years before sticking him in that box. His corners are all torn up and will probably need a bit of first aid in the way of packing tape if he's gonna last a whole lot longer. Gee, it's been a while. In fact, it's been so long that I really don't know what treasures are hidden inside. So this is going to be a bit of a treat for me too as we discover together some stupid lost anime crap from 1986 or '87. <br />
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Lessee, what's first? Oh, yeah, this'll do.<br />
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Looks like a <em>Zeta Gundam</em> postcard book, with Shah or Chaa or Char or Shaa (or whatever the spelling is this week) looking up at us through those cool shades. Poor guy is the last of his kind, here, as I actually sent all his buddies away through the mail some 15 years ago. If you look really closely, you can see one of the ZGundam mechs reflected in his shades. Or maybe that's just the lousy cameraman who's too cheap to buy a proper scanner...<br />
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Hmm, what's next. Oh...lookie...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_22sYgLmI/AAAAAAAAAOA/-NFn_tt1kkk/s1600-h/touch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_22sYgLmI/AAAAAAAAAOA/-NFn_tt1kkk/s320/touch.jpg" /></a></div><br />
It's a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_(manga)">Touch</a> stationary kit, just the thing you need to write a goofy love letter to the baseball player in your life. It even comes with a little button, hearts and stickers so you can personalize to your heart's content. Then you can stick it in the envelope and mail it off so he'll get it just in time for the playoffs! This show was a huge hit back when I was heavy into anime fandom, though I only met five or six people over here who claimed to be fans. <br />
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Hmm, what's this?<br />
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<em>Catseye</em> notepaper. I had Mitsuyoshi send me lots and lots of notepaper 'cause I wrote lots and lots of notes back in the '80s. I mean, sometimes two or three letters per day. After a while, that really adds up. It got so bad that I started running out of Japanese notepaper and had to resort to getting artists over here to create stationary for me. Sad thing was, they were happy to do it. That's how much mail I sent back and forth during the heyday of fandom tape trading and such. These things generally came with anywhere from 20-40 double-sided pages each and sometimes I still ran out. <br />
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Lessee, what's next...<br />
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Oh, yeah, what good is <em>Catseye</em> notepaper without a <em>Catseye</em> backing board to write on. At least, I think that's what these things are. I had several from different shows at one time - thin illustrated flexible plastic boards. Pics on front and back. I've always assumed they were for use in combination with the note paper, but who knows? They just look purty.<br />
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Oh, here's something for the <em>Robotech: The Movie</em> fans on your Christmas list:<br />
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<em>Megazone 23</em> stationary. I hope you can read the story, 'cause I think that's the best part. I mean, they make it so you don't have to even watch the movie. Considerate, no?<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_6SfPSxTI/AAAAAAAAAOo/JtqqVUIjm-g/s1600-h/Roberts+120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1_6SfPSxTI/AAAAAAAAAOo/JtqqVUIjm-g/s320/Roberts+120.jpg" /></a></div><br />
A set of <em>City Hunter</em> audio cassette labels. Back in the stone age, before I-pods and mp3 players, we had things called cassette tape players. If you're ever forced to ride in your hippie grandpa's Volkswagon bug or granny's old Caddy, you might actually see one of them. Otherwise, forget it. Come to think of it, no one writes letters or mails postcards anymore either, so that explains why I still have this stuff lying around. <br />
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Speaking of postcards, here are two more from the original <em>Macross</em>. How these managed to survive the mail is beyond me. I didn't like <em>Macross</em> nearly so much as a lot of hardcore fans I knew, and I usually managed to send out most of the stuff connected to shows I didn't care a whole lot for to truefans who would stick the shit on their walls and so forth. I've always been strange that way. Why have crap in your closet that someone else might enjoy?<br />
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Speaking of which, here's a <em>Minky Momo</em> note book with about three pages left in it. I could never find anyone who wanted it, so I used the paper to send notes to the people I didn't especially care for. You know, the people who wanted five hundred episodes of two hundred different shows on VHS six-hour speed by TOMORROW! Nothing says "fuck you, but here's Dave Merrill's address" quite like <em>Princess of Magic Minky Momo.</em><br />
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Here's something you don't see just everyday.<br />
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A <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> "Posicco Card." How special. I dunno how obvious it is owing to the piss-poor kung fu photo ability of the moron who took this pic, but that's an actual film piece in the upper right corner. In this case, it's a pic of Ken carrying Shin's body. The card assures me that the film is "only for you" and I should "feel free to use it!!" along with a picture of a pair of scissors and a dotted line to cut on. Of course, if you cut it out, it leaves a huge honkin' square hole in the middle of the postcard which makes it rather difficult to mail. I guess that means you're supposed to mail it first. Yeah, right. This one's going back in the bag...<br />
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Huh? What's that you say, Mr. Zilla, sir? You're getting tired of me reaching my hand into you? No? What then? Everyone has gotten tired of looking at old shit and has headed over to Carl Li's site? Okay, whatever you say. But I can't let you leave without showing them your egg-shaped letter set and have you tell them your story, can I? Of course not. That would be rude.<br />
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So, kids, be sure to wave goodbye to Godzilla as he swims back across the sea to his happy islet. I'm sure he'll be back very soon with more goodies to show everyone!RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-36048054522788902082010-01-26T05:45:00.002-06:002010-02-07T13:46:50.740-06:00Queen Eve Blows Up Love Robot and Goofy Guy! Juuza Twists Cel Contest!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vTGnUkTKI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/uDfG7vzRUsw/s1600-h/goodies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vTGnUkTKI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/uDfG7vzRUsw/s400/goodies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="color: red;">Anime stuff, circa 1986</span></div><div align="center"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, after that last mammoth post (remind me not to do anything like that for a while, please), it's time for a change. Of some kind. I'm gonna start off with something I call...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Cross-cultural Hilarity Simularities, or RWG's seein' things a wee bit strangely today.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vX3zUHQXI/AAAAAAAAAMY/fu60WvncuRc/s1600-h/CosmoWarriorZero--S0002-_-_Anime-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vX3zUHQXI/AAAAAAAAAMY/fu60WvncuRc/s400/CosmoWarriorZero--S0002-_-_Anime-14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">All together now: "Awwwwwwww."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Doing the whole Matsumoto groove last post, I got to thinking about the whole Tochiro/Emeraldas thing and damned if it didn't remind me of something I'd seen just a couple years back. Of course, I could've just been having flashbacks of the other fifteen other Leijiverse versions of the same damn relationship...but, no that wasn't it. The scruffy little guy with the big heart. The aloof, powerful, gorgeous gal with the big ship. Hmm, where have I seen this recently? Yeah.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ohhh, yeah</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vZinGOLCI/AAAAAAAAAMg/T6Vo-uVc8O0/s1600-h/wall-e-and-eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vZinGOLCI/AAAAAAAAAMg/T6Vo-uVc8O0/s400/wall-e-and-eve.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Love isn't blind, it's deaf and mute too.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tell me I'm wrong. I dare ya. Now, I'm not sayin' that Andrew Stanton and the Pixar guys are drooling Matsumoto fanboys like me and the Corn Pone flicks crew, but only that some things are just universal: no matter where you go in space and time, there's always gonna be at least one awesome example of womanhood who is willing to go slumming when the right shlub flies through deadly radiation to fix her ship or plants a shrub in an old shoe and holds an umbrella over her head in a thunderstorm. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vfz9rKCyI/AAAAAAAAAMo/DywJoO-EXfA/s1600-h/wall-e-and.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vfz9rKCyI/AAAAAAAAAMo/DywJoO-EXfA/s400/wall-e-and.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, okay, I'll be honest. It helps if the Tochiros and the Wall-Es are writing and directing the things. Just sayin'. But aside from the wish-fullfilment, fairy-tale aspect, there's a nugget of truth in this, isn't there? Isn't there?</div><br />
Hmm, okay, just for grins and giggles...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vkGV8OuRI/AAAAAAAAAMw/5TsGHYu6IFs/s1600-h/_Live-eviL__Captain_Harlock_SSX_-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vkGV8OuRI/AAAAAAAAAMw/5TsGHYu6IFs/s400/_Live-eviL__Captain_Harlock_SSX_-5.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: red;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Name</span>: Tochiro Oyama</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Physical Characteristics:</span> Short. Big Glasses. Bo legs.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangouts:</span> Dead worlds, Big ships with lots of skulls and crossbones.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hobbies:</span> Fixing things, Collecting scraps to build spaceships.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangs with:</span> Guy who is incredibly difficult to kill.<br />
<span style="color: red;">Ideal mate:</span> Obsessively driven woman with a big gun</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vmQ8a5KdI/AAAAAAAAAM4/u202UGK5tGM/s1600-h/wall-e-poster1-big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vmQ8a5KdI/AAAAAAAAAM4/u202UGK5tGM/s400/wall-e-poster1-big.jpg" width="272" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Name:</span> Wall-E</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Physical Characteristics:</span> Short. Big Eyes. No legs. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangouts:</span> Dead worlds. Big ships with numbskulls and lazybones.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hobbies:</span> Making squares. Collecting scraps.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangs with:</span> Bug who is impossible to kill.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Ideal mate:</span> Obsessively driven bot with a big gun arm.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vo0E9Vm5I/AAAAAAAAANA/FrM-yxCxrfQ/s1600-h/QueenEmeraldasOVA1101_00013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vo0E9Vm5I/AAAAAAAAANA/FrM-yxCxrfQ/s400/QueenEmeraldasOVA1101_00013.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Name:</span> Emeraldas</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Characteristics:</span> Quiet, with a nasty temper.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangouts:</span> Big ship with lots of robots.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Symbol:</span> Red rose in a vase</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hobbies:</span> Blowing up spaceships.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vpQ1oC9nI/AAAAAAAAANI/P3W3DlOLci0/s1600-h/Wall-E-Eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vpQ1oC9nI/AAAAAAAAANI/P3W3DlOLci0/s400/Wall-E-Eve.jpg" width="372" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Name:</span> Eve</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Characteristics:</span> Quiet, with an incredibly nasty temper.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hangouts:</span> Big ship with lots of robots.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Symbol:</span> Green plant in a shoe.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hobbies:</span> Blowing up ships.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">See. Incontrovertable truth: No matter what language you speak, English, Japanese or robot, incredibly goofy guys CAN win the love lottery, provided they have the writers on their side. With Valentine's Day coming up, I was tempted to leave this one 'till next month, but...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Okay, so much for the FUN (well, okay, I had fun).</span> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On to the GAMES.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I hope to make this a regular feature, or at least as regular as I can before my anime cel collection runs out. As you may have noticed, I really like being smart ass with my captions. I figure I'm not alone. So, with that in mind, I proudly introduce the "Smart-ass Caption Contest!" It's just like every other caption contest ever run, except that I'm gonna use animation cels from my collection instead of pics from the 'net. Some are pretty boring, but since most are from <em>Hokuto no Ken</em>, you can figure a lot of them by nature lend themselves to the absurd. But in an incredibly MANLY kind of way. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, most of them, anyway...some are just...well...I'll start out with an incredibly easy one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vtv1XkxWI/AAAAAAAAANQ/ggcbXctLV-E/s1600-h/juuza.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1vtv1XkxWI/AAAAAAAAANQ/ggcbXctLV-E/s400/juuza.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"If you can't snark on this one, you don't deserve to live!!!!"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have a couple of extra <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Comet_SPT_Layzner">SPT Layzner</a> cells lying around, along with a few generic cels to shows I don't know. Whoever comes up with the best caption, gets one or two of 'em and I'll even pay the postage. Assuming anyone is actually reading this stuff and wants to put themselves out there, leave it in the comments section below. The blog's only been around for a couple of weeks, so I'm giving this one another month or so before I figure no one cares. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"So, when did this skull all-hell-breaks-loose button get installed, anyway?"</span></div><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-17157678856141822542010-01-19T02:31:00.929-06:002010-01-23T23:33:34.352-06:00Music Video Praises Pirate Queen! Obsession Drinks to Zero!<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431282"></span><span id="goog_1263884431283"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431274"></span><span id="goog_1263884431275"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431265"></span><span id="goog_1263884431266"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431255"></span><span id="goog_1263884431256"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431257"></span><span id="goog_1263884431258"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431259"></span><span id="goog_1263884431260"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431261"></span><span id="goog_1263884431262"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431263"></span><span id="goog_1263884431264"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431249"></span><span id="goog_1263884431250"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431251"></span><span id="goog_1263884431252"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431243"></span><span id="goog_1263884431244"></span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1Va1MK--HI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/pYisacfqE2M/s1600-h/diacon+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1Va1MK--HI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/pYisacfqE2M/s400/diacon+001.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Steve Harrison bait.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">You say pot-a-to head, I say pot-ah-to head</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As I mentioned a couple <a href="http://hokutonofogie.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-of-more-interesting-things-about.html">blog</a> posts ago, one of the more interesting things about being dead to anime for fifteen years is that even the old stuff is new again. What with all the newly translated anime released in various formats, it's almost like being totally re-introduced to series I watched in raw form way back then. Unfortunately, that's not always a happy process. The anime hasn't really changed, but I most certainly have. My tastes have been - refined - for lack of a better term. This is especially true when it comes to anime that has been dubbed into English because, well, let's face it, the approach that American voice actors and directors bring to the product is not exactly the same as the Japanese sensibilities. Not only do I have to fight "the pre-conceived notions versus reality" battle that I touched upon in that earlier blog, but I also have to start wondering exactly how accurate the translation is and what kind of effort the American crew put forth. It's tough to decide how much of your bile or applause should be directed at the source material or at the American biz that put together the finished product. It's one of the reasons I've always preferred my anime subtitled. It's just much less distracting not to have to worry about that extra level between you and what the original folks put into the production. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the anime I've bothered to watch in the last ten years or so. Most of it was, as those who know me can probably guess, <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> related. A friend of mine in San Antonio manages a comic book store that kept up with a lot of the American releases, so I was lucky in that regard. I saw the ADV dub of the <em>Cursed City</em> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431278"></span><span id="goog_1263884431279"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1263884431272"></span><span id="goog_1263884431273"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a href="http://www.animejump.com/index.php?module=prodreviews&func=showcontent&id=573"><span style="font-size: small;">trilogy</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> <span id="goog_1263884431280"></span><span id="goog_1263884431281"></span><span id="goog_1263884431253"></span><span id="goog_1263884431254"></span><span id="goog_1263884431247"></span><span id="goog_1263884431248"></span>(though I could've sworn it wasn't in English, probably JAMM again), three of the <em>Legend of the True Savior</em> videos on youtube, the two <em>Queen Emeraldas</em> ADV </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emeraldas"><span style="font-size: small;">episodes</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, and the <em>Maetel Legend</em> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maetel_Legend"><span style="font-size: small;">release</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. Yeah, okay, I love me some Emeraldas too.</span> </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; color: red; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1VwINfycSI/AAAAAAAAAJo/-7cM_z4eiHc/s320/imagesCAT4G670.jpg" /></span><span style="color: red;">Yeah, yeah, don't they always say the book was better?</span><br />
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</div>Bottom line, with all the stuff out there now, I really didn't watch a whole lot. Part of that was because I was using dial-up until a year ago so I couldn't watch video online even if I wanted to (hell, I didn't even have television for nearly a decade, how perverse is that?), but mostly it was out of pure disinterest. I'd go into Bob's <a href="http://dlair.net/sanantonio/">shop</a> and make a point of checking out the new DVD releases, but nothing really caught my eye. So, now everything is new. Even if it's old. A target rich environment. So...where to start?<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The numerous anime blogs that have sprung up here there and everywhere haven't been a whole lot of help. They mostly seem to me to be written in a different language. And, to be honest, they probably are. Being an older nerd, I'm not up on the newer nerd tongue, so I'm slowly working on the whole translation business. I've already mentioned the whole "moe" thing - hell the word "otaku" wasn't even in our lexicon back in '85 or so. As soon as I get the whole "moe" thing down, I'm gonna try and tackle "fanservice," though I'm not even sure if everyone <a href="http://www.otakugoddess.com/2009/09/who-defines-otaku-short-answer-not-you.html">agrees</a> on "otaku" after 20 freakin' years, so I dunno how long I'll have to wait to get a consensus on the newer slang. I remember when name translation fights were all the rage, now we've graduated to more important things like whether or not underaged lolis with WW2 wings on their legs instead of pants is suitable stuff for general consumption. WhooHoo! Progress! Yeah, I'm just waiting for Bill O'Reilly to get ahold of an episode of that. Or Chuck Yeager's relatives. Meh, it's rough getting older. I start thinking about shit that never would've entered my mind thirty years back...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, I just didn't feel like jumping right into the newer stuff, so I did what I usually do when searching around for something to watch. Youtube. By that time, I'd already seen the rest of the <em>Hokuto no Ken Legend</em> OVAs (for the record, I seem to have enjoyed them more than many HnK fans I correspond with), done my two or three passes down memory lane by hitting the opening and closing credits '80's style thing (man, <em>Dunbine</em>, <em>L-Gaim</em>, <em>Giant Gorg</em>, and <em>Xabungle</em> STILL rock after almost thirty years), and even sampled couple of music videos.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1WEhIaTGPI/AAAAAAAAAKI/PHVqr3BZPMo/s1600-h/GIANT%2520GORG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1WEhIaTGPI/AAAAAAAAAKI/PHVqr3BZPMo/s320/GIANT%2520GORG.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Same Gorg time, Same Gorg channel!</span><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>One thing led to another to another to another, until I finally came across <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSaebXPB6E">this one</a> which I really liked. Yeah, I'm an old softie. Even after twenty years or so, I managed to place most of the Tochiro and Emeraldas cuts, but there were a few I'd obviously missed out on. Luckily for me, the person who put together this one was kind enough to list the credits at the end of the vid. After another half hour or so of googling, I set aside half a day or so to commit to something I'd actually heard about, but never even seen more than a a few seconds of.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1WLR9v5N7I/AAAAAAAAAKY/iSZHU3Yn6ok/s1600-h/zero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1WLR9v5N7I/AAAAAAAAAKY/iSZHU3Yn6ok/s400/zero.jpg" width="280" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Hey, kids, Harlock, Tochiro, Emeraldas and...some other guys.</span><br />
</div><br />
Man, it does this manga oldtimer's heart good to know that, along with gratuitous panty shots, shower scenes, and other timeless tropes of anime, Matsumoto potato heads and machine men with pointless dials all over their bodies have somehow managed to survive into the new century. All is right with the world. I felt like opening a bottle of fresh spring water to celebrate, but settled for a glass of red wine. A tall glass. I'm not usually one to watch anime with a buzz, but it's sort of become a tradition with the Matsumoto-inspired shows. That way I feel like I'm really down with the characters. If no one's popped a cork or poured a shot within the first two episodes or so, you know you're in the wrong anime. Plus, it helps get over the English dubbing. Because the Harlock anime have had special problems with this in the past. I can see some of you out there nodding. Yep. Somehow, I always hope the next one will be different in this regard, but I'm always disappointed. Just comes with the territory.<br />
<br />
I've always figured that the whole "voice acting" thing was probably more a problem for those of us who watched the raw material for years and years before the dubbed stuff was available. The obvious exceptions being <em>BoTP</em> and <em>Star Blazers</em>, of course. But speaking for myself, the standards were set early on. The exaggerated "drama" voices were an essential part of what made anime different for me. Hearing Captain Harlock speaking with a "normal" tone in a "normal" register just doesn't do it for me. In this particular case, I understand that Steven Blum is an accomplished voice actor. Hell, I see he even voiced Wolverine for the latest <em>X-Men</em> toon, and I loved the hell out of that particular job. But he's just not Captain Harlock here. He's just another voice attached to an icon. But I understand the whole "dramatic reading" thing is just never going to fly here in America, so I'll be pleased to be shutting up about it now.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1jOr-G5-1I/AAAAAAAAAKg/RALrJZ07uKo/s1600-h/180px-Bchandesu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1jOr-G5-1I/AAAAAAAAAKg/RALrJZ07uKo/s320/180px-Bchandesu.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Seriously, where do they find these voice actor people, anyway?</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I'd never heard of these main characters having appeared in any other medium (unless there's a Matsumoto manga I'm unaware of), so I was left to assume that the source material was originally a special project of some kind. The wiki article is unhelpful in this regard, the best I could come up with was yet another reference by Dave Merrill - hello, anyone ELSE out there doing articles on old school material?! - to a video game or somesuch. But enough of that, I tracked down the series, and set out to watch it on its own terms, something which I'm really not used to doing because...well, because I still have memories of the raw versions of most of Matsumoto's shows and it's rare that something comes out that I'm totally unfamilar with in that regard. <br />
<br />
So, as I sat down in front of the computer, I was quite prepared to either love it to death, or want to slit my wrists. A couple hours later, I was actually kind of surprised that I came away somewhere in the mushy middle on this one. <br />
<br />
To begin with, I wasn't prepared for the incredibly mellow <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQRwxs01Mnc">opening.</a> Luckily for me, I'd tanked up on caffeine beforehand, because I knew I had at least five or six more of these to get through between the actual episodes. Evidently, the instrumental has an actual vocal <a href="http://polidiseno.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/">version</a>, which I suppose is available on the soundtrack. I really wish they'd used that one here, because I've been conditioned to think that anime openings meant actual words being sung in a language I couldn't understand. In the case of Mastumoto series, this meant <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-b_iNrQaQ">guys</a> with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwnJZA-H2o0&feature=related">deep</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU7ACtMkz_Q&feature=related">voices</a>, singing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuxgU2RMGiU&feature=related">manly</a> songs. Heck, when <em>SSX</em> came out, they released a whole album of manly man songs to go with it. Even <em>Queen 1000</em> had a guy with a deep voice singing the opening song and Harlock wasn't even IN that one. But, what the hell, speaking of millenium, it's the new one, so I'll go with it. So long as the main character isn't as wimpy as the theme song...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1jarGNKXtI/AAAAAAAAAKo/T8wrxlHv2tA/s1600-h/CosmoWarriorZeroGaiden26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1jarGNKXtI/AAAAAAAAAKo/T8wrxlHv2tA/s320/CosmoWarriorZeroGaiden26.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"You talkin' ta me?"</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">No worries there. At least once we get past the first episode, anyway. After the opening five minutes or so of understandable angst over the way the machine people made Earth into a giant mud puddle in a war, and a good bit of "blame the guy who wasn't around" from the survivors, Warrius Zero is feeling like his parents had a precog flash of this very moment before they named him. In addition, he's got this nifty family finder gadget that lets him (and the entire English-speaking audience) know in no uncertain terms that his wife and kid are "Lost." One quick cut later, we're left to wonder if it was all a dream, memory, or premonition because we skip to him sitting in his comfy chair on his space ship. I'm going with memory, but I'd favor dream if only because the Earth survivors act like a bunch of wusses. No wonder they lost. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So Zero's evidently slumming, in charge of a ship on a training mission or something after being a high-fallootin' Admiral in a war that ended in a stalemate between the good guys and the machine people. Well, okay, it's not quite as simple as that, but it'll do for my purposes. He's so down that he's ready to quit the series before his chief knocks some sense into him (literally, in the best scene of the first episode), just in time to pick up an SOS from a bunch of ships under attack by Captain Harlock and Yattaran, who is still playing with toy airplanes after 30 years. Again, it's a bit comforting to know that some things simply do not change.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of things that don't change, after a game of chicken that goes bad when the engines on Zero's ship fail, Harlock does that thing that he does by recognizing a worthy opponent; and destroys the transport ship Warrius and crew were guarding, then turns and leaves Zero to stew over living up to his name yet again. About this time, I start scratching my head, trying to remember the first episode of the last anime I saw where the lead character was so totally ineffectual. And, no, <em>Urusei Yatsura</em> does not count. There probably were a few, but it's been a while...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Next thing we see, Zero is trying to negotiate a deal with his bosses to go back after Harlock, who is causing the machine people a great deal of trouble just by being himself. Of course, Zero's bosses turn out to be part of the problem by having some kind of shady deal with the machine people that we're supposed to find out about as the series progresses. Zero gets his old ship back with, well, the same bridge crew we saw earlier in the episode. With one major exception, who is introduced in one of the dumbest anime scenes I can recall. That's probably because I've mercifully blanked the worst offenders from my memory over fifteen years, but even still, this one's a whole planet of stupid.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In fact, I dunno which part boggled me most - that the <a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/Analyzer%20yamato/letsanime/skirt.jpg">Analyzer</a> clone in this one was the freakin' FIRST MATE on Zero's previous ship or that whoever designed the ship had the main elevator open directly into a shower stall. Come to think of it, if Analyzer had anything to do with the design of the ship, maybe it's not so unbelievable after all. Still might help explain why they got their ass handed to them by the machine people. I bet none of their ships had "fanservice" as part of the standard ship tours. See, I'm slowly learning these newfangled terms.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1j6nm9uzpI/AAAAAAAAAKw/Ugzw_qK2zxw/s1600-h/CosmoWarriorZeroSpecial5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1j6nm9uzpI/AAAAAAAAAKw/Ugzw_qK2zxw/s320/CosmoWarriorZeroSpecial5.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"First mate, Shower Scene, reporting for duty!"</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, her name is actually Marina and she does eventually turn into a pretty good character, but man, it's hard to ignore that introduction. Yeah, it's a trope, tried and true, as it were, but it's still just dumb, dumb, dumb to INTRODUCE a serious character that way. Okay, maybe I'm getting too old for this stuff after all. Meh. And, of course, the first mate looks exactly like Zero's dead wife. Like I have absolutely no clue where that subplot's going. Oh, yeah, and it turns out the ship's engineer "ordered" for a new first mate because he didn't like getting bossed around by a robot. Gee, I wonder how such an outfit lost a war, huh?<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Only in anime. Double Meh. It's at this point you kind of hope that something was lost in translation, but you have a feeling deep down inside that you know 90% of the stupid is coming from the source. Luckily, you've been here dozens of times before and know it usually gets better. Keep in mind, all of the above stupid is the super-concentrated kind, taking up less than two minutes worth of screentime, kind of a black hole of dumb, sucking most of the crap out of the other twenty-two minutes of the episode. Or, at least that's what you hope for. Because you still have three minutes left to watch...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Not to worry, the remainder of the episode is the launching of the ship, the Karyu, and a great time is had by all. Although there seem to be a scarcity of ships in this one, the designs are pretty standard for the later Matsumoto-inspired anime and I had no problems with them, though I understand that a few others do. I like the way the lead character gives the teaser for the next episode - it reminds me of one of my favorite '80s mecha shows, <em>Panzer World Galient</em> in that regard.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kZ-Irw-lI/AAAAAAAAALA/P-oyROdqjM4/s1600-h/CosmoWarriorZero23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kZ-Irw-lI/AAAAAAAAALA/P-oyROdqjM4/s320/CosmoWarriorZero23.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Hmm, this kool-aid tastes funny."</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The first few episodes focus on the integration of the humans and the machine people on the ship and we learn again fairly quickly why the humans didn't fare better in the war. They aren't quite the layabouts from the original <em>Captain Harlock</em> series, but they're definitely on the fast track. The whole idea of machine people - "We aren't robots!" - is one of the Matsumoto ideas that remains fascinating to me, even if it's used mainly to explore the now-familar bigotry metaphor in this particular series. Can't have too much of that, I suppose. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The next few episodes have their share of stupid, but nothing so concentrated that it stood out. It was kind of jarring to figure they only had a machine man doctor on the ship, but one doc per ship is a Matsumoto staple. Marina gets shot in thwarting an attempted mutiny by the machine men, which is at least a plausible excuse for the next shower scene, and telegraphs an upcoming plot twist you ought to be able to see coming if you're at all familiar with prior <em>Harlock/GE 999</em> material. Aside from Zero himself, the chief engineer is my favorite character, which should come as no shock. I dunno if it was there in the original material or the English folks had fun with the translation, but there was one reference to Marina having whips and chains in her closet that I thought was pretty funny. Some "mysterious" third party sets up a test involving pirates that aren't really pirates, which struck me as a bit of a stretch considering the way the pirates were acting towards one another when no one else was monitoring, but that's pretty small stuff. As part of a continuing subplot, the same "mysterious entity" takes control of the ship's main weapon - the latest version of the "wave motion cannon" trope. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">To tell the truth, by the time Zero added the "outlaw" Grenadier to the crew, I was more than ready for the good stuff.</span> </span><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kTM3ble-I/AAAAAAAAAK4/YSu545JeYTE/s1600-h/fotocentralezl9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kTM3ble-I/AAAAAAAAAK4/YSu545JeYTE/s320/fotocentralezl9.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Good stuff.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">To be honest, I came into this series cold when it came to knowing what version of Harlock and crew I was gonna get here. But, considering the way Harlock was introduced in the first episode, the last thing I expected was <em>Gun Frontier</em>. Hell, Yattaran wasn't even IN <em>Gun Frontier</em>. Neither was Emeraldas and she's the reason I started with this one instead of <em>GF</em> in the first place. So, when the fifth episode opened in the wild wild west, my first inclination was to go grab another bottle of wine. Then I figured it WAS <em>Gun Frontier</em>, so I grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels instead. I'm telling you, watching this stuff with a buzz is the only way to go. It also makes it so that you don't CARE whether or not you confuse Marina with Silviana. What kind of show is this anyway, when they violate the most sacred rule of animating Matsumoto women - thou shalt NOT give two of them the same fucking hair color. EVER. Even if one of them uses guns and the other doesn't. It's just evil. Bad animators. Bad.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1ka-Sk0oXI/AAAAAAAAALI/XEqD_tUi8bA/s1600-h/CosmoWarriorZero18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1ka-Sk0oXI/AAAAAAAAALI/XEqD_tUi8bA/s320/CosmoWarriorZero18.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Three. Count 'em, THREE women with blue hair on this show. Sadists.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">That said, the booze level on this show had been tepid up to this point, so I figured something had to give pretty quickly. Just a few generic "red liquid" in glasses swirling around Zero's quarters. But, hey, this is fucking <em>Gun Frontier</em> we're talking about. Booziness is next to Godliness. So I knew it was coming, just a matter of when.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, there was a whole lot of stupid before then, which made it difficult to wait for Harlock and company to show up before getting wasted. I knew <em>Gun Frontier</em> was...eh...silly compared to what normally passed for Harlock mythos, but I really didn't expect his Warriusness to jump headfirst into the pool of goofiness, especially after all that talk about how dangerous the territory was. So, of course, he sends the potato head and the kid along with Grenadier and the <strike>comedy relief</strike> machine man communications officer. Yeah, that'll work out just swell.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Aw, why bother. By the time I hear the "voice" they gave Tochiro, two shots are down and the glass is in the sink. I was just getting used to the voice acting, which (aside from Harlock) is pretty darned good. But the "Marvin Lee" nym tells me all I need to know about how much they really cared. Shame. I guess I ought to be used to it by now, but I'm always hoping that someday...sad to think that the best American Tochiro voice job I can remember is that fucking Roger Corman <em>Galaxy Express</em> film from waaay back in 1980. I'm sure there have been others I've not seen, but...eh, time to take another swig. May as well make a drinking game out of it.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kkZDTQgTI/AAAAAAAAALQ/OgqtwdnA_pA/s1600-h/vlcsnap-427845.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1kkZDTQgTI/AAAAAAAAALQ/OgqtwdnA_pA/s400/vlcsnap-427845.png" width="400" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Here's to you, big guy.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
So, hijinks ensue, milk is spilled, swords are drawn, whiskey is ruined (in no small part because they kept it in barrels in the street because there are obviously no thieves or drunks around); town folk get all riled up, and we have several Scooby-Doo chase scenes, except with ray guns, bazookas, and giant cows instead of goofy grown-ups in fake monster costumes. Exactly what I expected when the series started five episodes back with Zero getting all angsty and kids crying and ships being blown up in outer space. Oh, wait. <br />
<br />
Aw, fuck it, it's Harlock. All is well with the world. <br />
<br />
The four stooges are back at their shuttle and the machine man explains that he let Tochiro chop his arm off because machine man arms are easier to replace than human arms. And he's right, 'cause by the next episode, it's as good as new. Silviana loses her clothes again, resulting in a change to my drinking game. Marina finally browbeats Zero into rescuing the four stooges. The riled-up townsfolk string Tochiro up AND point guns at him, which is Harlock's signal to finally show up. Or maybe it was because the episode hit the twenty-two minute mark. Just to make sure the riled-up townsfolk don't give him backtalk, he brings the Deathshadow with him. We know it's the Deathshadow and not the Arcadia 'cause it doesn't burst up out of the ground. I guess the situation wasn't dire enough...or the budget wasn't big enough. I'm getting antsy. No booze AND no Emeraldas in that episode. Seriously beginning to think there's something wrong with this series...<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lGXDxg5nI/AAAAAAAAALg/eEid1-Lul3g/s1600-h/queen_emeraldas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lGXDxg5nI/AAAAAAAAALg/eEid1-Lul3g/s400/queen_emeraldas.jpg" width="340" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">I love, love, LOVE, this piece of fan art.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, okay, that was more like it. For the most part. Seems Harlock brought his ship all that way just to look impressive. I really don't get what they were trying to do with Silviana. One minute she's pointing her gun down the barrell of the Deathshadow's 16-inchers, the next she's talking about how she can't fight 'cause her makeup is running. Dude, for all the talk in this series about mechanized men and bigotry and shit, they really still have these huge blinders on when it comes to women. It really makes this stuff hard to take at all seriously, even silly/serious. You almost have to believe that's in the source material, but I dunno. I kind of feel for the woman responsible for having to say that crap and put her name on it. <br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Luckily, there's still Emeraldas.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And booze.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;">"You're lucky Harlock didn't kill ya."</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;">"But who cares? If'n there ain't no booze ta drink, there just ain't no point."</span> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Preach it, brother! I bet they had fun in the voice booth during that particular exchange. In any case, the riled-up townsfolk explain to Harlock exactly why they were stringin' Tochiro up, Harlock opens up the bar on the Deathshadow and the power of hard liquor conquers all.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, almost all. The four stooges are still on Harlock's trail (despite direct orders from Zero) and throw Tochiro in a cave and start whoopin' on him. When that doesn't work, one of them gets the bright idea to come up with voice activated bomb that's set to go off when Tochiro opens his yap - they stick Tochiro BACK in the noose and wait for Harlock to show up in the hopes that Harlock will get close enough for an ambush. I guess four against one would've been cheating so they needed an ambush. Or something. Of course Harlock shows up and Tochiro yells anyway because that's just the kind of guy he is. Turns out the bomb was a trick.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lH8sV7auI/AAAAAAAAALo/UXexH9C7uhI/s1600-h/largeAnimePaperscans_Captain-Harloc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lH8sV7auI/AAAAAAAAALo/UXexH9C7uhI/s400/largeAnimePaperscans_Captain-Harloc.jpg" width="280" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Yeah, we know who the real stars of this show are, huh?</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Zero shows up just as everyone starts firing at each other and stops the fight. He slugs one of the stooges because it would look silly for him to slug himself for sending the four dweebs down there in the first damned place. Then he gives them the manly lecture about how Tochiro was prepared to sacrifice himself for Harlock and they all look appropriately shamed. Tochiro wonders what they were hoping to accomplish with the voice-activated dud bomb. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;">"We wanted to shut you up."</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, "Marvin Lee," I know the feeling. God, that voice is fucking irritating. By this time, the bottle of Jack is a quarter empty...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of drinking, the power of the bottle is on display yet again as Harlock invites Zero and crew to the booze party back in town. Dunno why I noticed, but Zero is actually about an inch taller than Harlock. I wonder if that's 'cause it's technically his show. Just sayin'...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Back at the saloon, evidently the Deathshadow had so much booze onboard that the bartender could fully stock his bar. Seriously, all the shelves are full. Harlock and Zero debate the whole pirate vs machine man lackey thing, which puts Tochiro to sleep. Lucky, Emeraldas' comfy lap is there to catch his little potato head. Emeraldas looks a bit annoyed. I'm just happy he's finally shut the hell up. I actually like the Emeraldas voice here, though it's not quite up to the "Who fired on my ship?!" line from that Roger Corman <em>999</em> film. Geez, it sounds like I'm pimping for that crappy thing today. To be fair, the poor woman here only had like three lines the entire episode. Hard to show your talent with three lines. Even if one of them was really good.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lO2IfNMcI/AAAAAAAAALw/Fip4Azk8rx8/s1600-h/queen%2520emeraldas.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lO2IfNMcI/AAAAAAAAALw/Fip4Azk8rx8/s320/queen%2520emeraldas.bmp" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Let her get you down from there."</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And with that, I ran out of patience, though not out of booze. I suppose I'll end up watching the rest of the series one day. Aside from the similarity between the Marina/Silviana designs, I couldn't find a whole lot of fault with the character art here. I did notice that at least one male character actually sported the "eyelashes outside of the hairline" thing that characterizes the standard Matsumoto female designs. I dunno if I've ever noticed that in any prior "Leijiverse" anime before. On humans, anyway. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The music was inobtrusive, if lackluster. There really weren't a whole lot of really dramatic scenes in space to show off the music to, I expect they'll be more later in the series. Most of the Heavy Meldar/Gun Frontier scenes were played for laughs.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The animation itself...eh. Seemed pretty typical for the old OVA series we used to get back in the '80s to me. The colors were nice and crisp. But much of that may have just been me remembering the hell of having to watch the washed up stuff that resulted from multiple generation tape copies.</span> </span><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lXH2Th_RI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4w4gkhFwlcI/s1600-h/716789-2824960-Queen%2520Emeraldas%2520(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lXH2Th_RI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4w4gkhFwlcI/s320/716789-2824960-Queen%2520Emeraldas%2520(2).jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Just because you can't get enough Emeraldas.</span><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Damn, this turned out to be a lot longer than I planned. I'm going to have to learn to break these things up in the future. As for the pic at the top of the blog, it's a plate Mitsuyoshi sent me back in the day. I dunno if it's a particular Matsumoto character that I've just not seen before, or just a generic design. If anyone has any idea, I'd love to know.<br />
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</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lqofNmvYI/AAAAAAAAAMI/t5_czYlL6ws/s1600-h/diacon+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" mt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1lqofNmvYI/AAAAAAAAAMI/t5_czYlL6ws/s400/diacon+002.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">The signature is dated "1979" (I think)</span><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-27166656776739024462010-01-16T02:59:00.002-06:002010-01-16T03:08:57.039-06:00Texas Invades the Fifth Radish! Old Fans Find Funny Clothes!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F3eaXrrPI/AAAAAAAAAIY/soRWc6cnmW4/s1600-h/diacon+035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F3eaXrrPI/AAAAAAAAAIY/soRWc6cnmW4/s400/diacon+035.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"A scanner. A scanner. My kingdom for a scanner."</span><br />
</div><br />
<br />
Sometime in late 1984 or early '85, the Daicon III&IV anime <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj5HDqipQYw&feature=related">shorts</a> started making the American fannish rounds and the result was, in the words of a fellow C/FO-San Antonio member who will remain nameless, a "giant fanboy orgasm" that went up one side of the US and down the other. Seriously, there was so much sweaty goodness concentrated in that seven plus minutes of freeze-frame bait that I made a whole seperate tape (at two-hour speed no less!) of it in order to make copies from so I wouldn't screw up my own. Yeah, I think I might have made 10 or so copies just for local SA types, some of whom were barely interested in anime. That's just the kind of magic it held - something for just about everyone, provided they looked hard enough.<br />
<br />
Better <a href="http://www.cjas.org/~leng/daicon.htm">people</a> than me have done articles on the anime itself, as well as the history both behind it and of the resulting formation of <a href="http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainspotting/2005/07/fans-who-would-be-kings.html">Studio</a> Gainax, so I won't go into it here except to say that it just fucking rocked. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1ESeD9bnnI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Pjb0BvWQ1VE/s1600-h/daicon_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1ESeD9bnnI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Pjb0BvWQ1VE/s320/daicon_4.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Cute girl with deadly backpack destroying every sf/fantasy vehicle ever put on film or video. You'd think there'd be screenshots all over the net, eh?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Being the kind of curious critter I was back then, I started asking around about the origin of the thing (all we knew is that it was from some convention in Japan named after a radish) and was informed that the Japanese science fiction community had - and, actually, still has - a national sf convention that moves around the country each year. The con isn't actually called "Daicon" except in the years it's held in Osaka. Strangely enough, I also found that the 1986 version of the convention was also going to be held in Osaka. Which, coincidently, is where my new Japanese friend <a href="http://hokutonofogie.blogspot.com/2010/01/great-original-story-country-singer.html">Mitsuyoshi</a> lived... <br />
<br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><em>Robotech</em> hit the airwaves, the <em>Shonen Jump</em> manga spin-offs and Nippon Sunrise mecha shows were dominating the anime TV schedules in Japan, VCRs were getting cheaper, and new anime fan clubs were popping up all over the country. Basically, it was a pretty good time to be getting into the fandom - something which was not lost on certain creative business types on this side of the pond hoping to take advantage of the expanding market. One of these was a California-based travel agency called Ladera Travel. They organized several fan tours of Japan, mostly using the C/FO and other networks to get the word out. One of the events on the tour was the upcoming 1986 Daicon 5 in Osaka.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Now, word of the tour spread down to us in San Antonio, but there wasn't a whole lot of interest because, well, because even organized through a travel agency, a trip to Japan was pretty expensive. Of our group of 20 or so regular attendees, only Ray Elliot and Jack Thielepape showed both the interest and had enough moola to make the trip. Ray was a friend of Randy Stukey and Shon Howell and one of the founding members of C/FO-San Antonio, a military type who joined a lot of his servicemen in deciding to retire in the great town of San Antone. Jack actually lived in Austin, but made the trip down to SA just about every month for our meetings, a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jmtimages/">camera</a> around his neck like it was part of his character design or somethin'. He's since been a fixture at the convention scene in Texas and I think he's still the official photo go-to guy at Project A-Kon.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">When I found they were planning to attend, I dropped Mitsuyoshi a letter explaining the tour and he ended up meeting them in Osaka in August of '86 - seems he'd really gotten into the whole fandom thing. Luckily, he remembered to bring his camera...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F38eQu3nI/AAAAAAAAAIg/feQICN4M-XU/s1600-h/diacon+032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F38eQu3nI/AAAAAAAAAIg/feQICN4M-XU/s400/diacon+032.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">An auditorium of Japanese fans all studiously studying...something.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F5MU0EHAI/AAAAAAAAAIo/pDtonV5uuTY/s1600-h/diacon+037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F5MU0EHAI/AAAAAAAAAIo/pDtonV5uuTY/s400/diacon+037.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">I dunno exactly what's going on here, but I'm guessing a re-enactment of that classic <em>Lost in Space</em> episode?</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F6R_98ywI/AAAAAAAAAIw/P733d5Cx2Do/s1600-h/diacon+031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F6R_98ywI/AAAAAAAAAIw/P733d5Cx2Do/s400/diacon+031.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Jack, on the other side of the camera for a change, showing off a poster to a movie no one saw.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F7N-7kDlI/AAAAAAAAAI4/-m3NNDCX7wQ/s1600-h/diacon+029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F7N-7kDlI/AAAAAAAAAI4/-m3NNDCX7wQ/s400/diacon+029.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Ray, checking out animation cels.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F7uH00HkI/AAAAAAAAAJA/y_JJffgNCqI/s1600-h/diacon+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S1F7uH00HkI/AAAAAAAAAJA/y_JJffgNCqI/s400/diacon+008.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">That's either supposed to be Black Jack in the back or Japanese conventions don't smell a whole lot better than ours.</span><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-76863650060330919922010-01-13T21:56:00.002-06:002010-01-14T23:48:16.758-06:00Great Original Story! The Country Singer Leads to Treasure!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S05dih6X3ZI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/YnnlfAsLCcE/s1600-h/debliedsleeveedit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S05dih6X3ZI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/YnnlfAsLCcE/s320/debliedsleeveedit.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<br />
I owe a great part of my '80s anime fandom happiness to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvUEUg5-A6A">Deborah Allen</a>. Never heard of her, huh? Yeah, I wouldn't expect you to, especially if you're neither over 40 nor a fan of country music.<br />
<br />
In just another example of how life comes at you from directions you wouldn't expect, a song on AM radio in 1983 changed my life. I used to ride with my father to the mobile home outfit we worked at back then and he always had the radio tuned to country music stations. The song was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8gg1fQsFI&feature=related">Baby I Lied</a>, the debut single from the perky C&W singer/songrwriter, produced by her then boyfriend (later hubby) Rafe VanHoy. As was often the case back then, country singles "crossed over" to the pop charts, and such it was with this one. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. Since she didn't have enough songs put together to make up a full album, the record company released a "mini-album" with six songs. I dunno why, exactly, but it didn't matter to me. All I knew is that I wanted the damned thing and I wanted it NOW. Well, I had to wait until the end of the work day, but later that night I was wearing it out on the turntable. That's "record player" for all of you kids.<br />
<br />
By the next morning, I was in love. Well, okay, more like a potent mixture of lust and admiration, but when I get ahold of a good lookin' woman who can sing and (in the words of Miss <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPB0zXJsQpU&feature=related">Nanci Griffith</a>) "play her own damn rhythm guitar and write her own damn songs" I tend to lose it. Still holds true today for that matter, but getting into that would make this blog post incredibly long and mostly boring. In any case, I wanted more. But, aside from the record itself, there wasn't any more. <br />
<br />
Except an address for the official Deborah Allen fan club.<br />
<br />
Now, I was 23 years old and the only "fan club" I'd ever joined in my life was the <em>Banana Splits</em> fan club back when I was nine years old. Hey, don't laugh, those songs were kinda groovy (and if you don't believe me, check out the background music to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjO7kBqTFqo">this</a>.) And the <a href="http://funky16corners.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/">records</a> (you would NOT believe who wrote and performed some of that shit) they sent played better than the cardboard cut-outs you got on the back of the cereal <a href="http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/cbmany.html">boxes</a>. But, again, I'm getting sidetracked. Gonna have to figure out how to stop doing that. It's hard when you keep finding new cool crap while googling for old cool crap. Sigh. Where was I? Oh, yeah, fan clubs.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S05xi7KcoCI/AAAAAAAAAHY/_uEDcqp22f4/s1600-h/banana-splits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S05xi7KcoCI/AAAAAAAAAHY/_uEDcqp22f4/s320/banana-splits.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Guilty as charged. If it weren't for little shits like me funding Sid&Marty, the world may have been spared the horror that was <em>Sigmund and the Sea Monsters</em>.</span><br />
</div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was 23 freakin' years old and told myself I had no business joining a fan club. Heh, right. Little did I know. I don't even remember how much it cost to join the "official" Deborah Allen fan club, but I figured it was worth it to get a poster and autograph. So I sent out my money and went about my business waiting for the package to come in. And by "business," I meant comic books and anime. At that time, my newfound love of Japanese toons was slowly replacing my old love of American toons because, frankly, American toons had turned to crap. This was before the advent of cheap VCRs so even the classic Looney Tunes stuff wasn't being marketted and Saturday morning toons were dying. It really was quite depressing. Houston UHF stations had shown stuff like <em>Battle of the Planets</em> and <em>Star Blazers</em>, but San Antonio was a wasteland at the time. So a good portion of my time was spent playing and running tabletop RPGs (<em>Champions </em>had come out a few years earlier and was a major obsession) and going over to Ben Dunn's house to watch second or third - or worse - generation Japanese toons and wondering how we could possible get more. Preferably some that we could watch without getting headaches from all the snow and squiggles and without having to adjust the <span style="color: red;"><strong>FUCKING TRACKING EVERY TWO MINUTES!!!!!!</strong></span></span> </span><br />
<br />
Sorry, had a VCR flashback there. I'm sure the oldtimers can sympathize. All better now.<br />
<br />
Anyway, months passed and the fan club package came in and I was a happy camper for a while. Deborah released a new <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrCstq-qIhQ&feature=related">album</a> which I enjoyed as much as the first, but didn't get country airplay because she probably got a little TOO much on the pop side of things. We started getting a few more tapes from sources other than Austin, I joined the EDC in the summer of '84 and started a collection of my own and started hauling it around to area SF and gaming conventions showing this stuff to pretty much anyone showed any interest whatsoever and even a lot of people who didn't. But as soon as I landed a pretty decent copy of that <em>Golgo-13</em> feature from the early '80s, it made my job a whole lot easier. Nothing like a bunch of sex, guns and death to get the attention of the kinds of people who used to frequent cons back then. <br />
<br />
Then, sometime in early '85 I got another package from the Deborah Allen fan club and this one included a membership list and a few reprinted fan letters. Lo and behold (I always wanted to write that), one of the fan letters was from a Mitsuyoshi Yamashita of Osaka Japan. "Hmm," I thought - for all of two seconds - then I grabbed the letter and hiked up to Mike Cogliandro's house because I knew absolutely nil about Japanese names and had no earthly idea if "Mitsuyoshi" was a guy's name or a girl's name. Really stupid, huh? Mike's mom, being Japanese, assured me that Mituyoshi was, indeed a guy, and I wasn't going to be committing some unpardonable offense demanding trans-Pacific communicational seppaku by addressing him as such. I never was much for the whole "to whom it may concern" thing and I worry about dumb crap like that. Or did. In any case, I have the internet now so those kinds of silly problems are a thing of the '80s. Seriously, you young'uns don't EVEN know how much fandom life is easier now.<br />
<br />
To make a long story shorter, I wrote Mitsuyoshi a nice simple letter and had to take it down to the post office, where I was given a quick primer on the ins and outs of sending mail to Japan because, well, because I'd never actually sent anything oversees before. Boy, let me tell you, I got to know all the local post office employees by their first names over the next couple years. Even brought 'em cookies one year. <br />
<br />
Two weeks later, I find a letter sitting in my mailbox from Mitsuyoshi and my life...changes. <br />
<br />
The moral of the story? <br />
<br />
If you want to get a swell friend from Japan (not to mention anime, manga and all sorts of other goodies) - join a freakin' <strong><span style="color: red;">country music fan club!!!!!</span></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S06Or_a3QiI/AAAAAAAAAHo/9Q9tpcQ8geI/s1600-h/captaincerebus+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S06Or_a3QiI/AAAAAAAAAHo/9Q9tpcQ8geI/s400/captaincerebus+003.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: red;">The scary thing is that I had most of those albums myself.</span><br />
</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S06TXdFqU6I/AAAAAAAAAIA/O-k4NSIsmmY/s1600-h/letters3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S06TXdFqU6I/AAAAAAAAAIA/O-k4NSIsmmY/s400/letters3.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Email? WTF is email?!!!!</span><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-44700133521375619582010-01-12T22:27:00.002-06:002010-01-12T22:43:10.030-06:00Captain Aardvark Rocks the Convention! Drive, Magic T-Bird, Drive!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dallas Fantasy Fair, 1984</span><br />
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</div>Back in cave man days, before the dawn of civilized anime conventions, we had to pretty much make do with whatever was in the immediate area. In the early '80s, in Texas, that meant comic book conventions or science fiction conventions. SF Cons were still fairly strong in Texas, with NASFIC (the American convention held in place of WorldCon when the latter is held somewhere, well, not in the US) held in Austin in 1985, and AggieCon at Texas A&M and a few others scattered here and there around the Lone Star State. At the SF cons I went to (admittedly, not all that many) during that period, they'd have video rooms and, every once in a while, even let us show this anime stuff in raw Japanese. But, for the most part, the comic book conventions was where the real action was at. <br />
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And, in Texas, during the '80s, Larry Lankford's Bulldog Productions ruled the comic book convention biz in the state. For a number of years, they'd run two cons per year in Dallas and rotate conventions through Houston, San Antonio and Austin as, I suppose, the money became available.<br />
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As I've mentioned a few time in previous posts, I'd become addicted to conventions before I moved from Houston to San Antonio, in '80 and so long as I could managed to scrape up the cash (and a ride), I hit as many of them as humanly possible. The first "LarryCon" - which is what almost everyone I know called 'em - I can remember attending was a Dallas Fantasy Fair in 1984, though I'd attended a few other comic cons in Houston and San Antonio before then. The San Antonio "cons" were especially weak, most of them being glorified excuses for the local comic shops to set up booths in the middle of malls with no other programming to speak of. <br />
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My running buddy back then was Mike Cogliandro, a fellow comic book nut and aspiring artist. We met at the only comic book shop in our area of town and after shooting the bull for a few weeks found out we lived - get this - five blocks from each other. Talk about kismet, eh? Anyway, Mike had a car and a job, so I <strike>mooched off</strike> hung around with him through most of the '80s and some of that time was spent driving to and from comic book conventions. Mainly in Houston, 'cause I still had relatives there who would let us set up shop for a few nights, but occassionally in Dallas because of Mike's association with local San Antonio comic book pro Sam De La Rosa. <a href="http://www.samdelarosa.com/">Sam</a> worked closely with Kerry Gammill (who lived in Dallas) and Mike helped Sam out by doing background work on some of his books. This meant carting Sam up to Dallas every once in a while (Sam didn't drive) and I usually hitched a ride because I was pretty much a bum. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S008TRTgVSI/AAAAAAAAAG4/9P98LhLlg80/s1600-h/INDY-524x775.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S008TRTgVSI/AAAAAAAAAG4/9P98LhLlg80/s320/INDY-524x775.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Kerry and Sam. You really don't see this kind of detail in American comics much anymore. Mainly 'cause it took FOREVER.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, Kerry was going to be a guest at one of Larry's cons in '84 and Mike, Sam and I piled into Mike's white T-Bird and headed for Big D. I'd been over to Ben Dunn's house a few times and had been intrigued by some of the contemporary anime I'd seen, so when I came across the EDC's anime video room at the con, I picked up a copy of probably the same flyer that Dave <a href="http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=235">Merrill</a> did and flopped down at the back of the room to watch the stuff. Manning the room was Jeff Blend, who may just be the hardest-working anime fan that no one outside of Dallas remembers. Seriously, I've been in many a video room and run more than my share of them, but Jeff Blend just totally rocked. <br />
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</div><div align="left">I don't recall a whole lot more about that particular con, but I joined the EDC and swapped information with Jeff and promised Derek and Meri that I'd make more trips up their way and try my best to drag Ben up for some tape-swapping sessions and maybe even a few EDC meetings. My interest in American comics hadn't quite died yet, but it was definitely narrowing, and I found myself in an extremely rare position back then - I actually had money to spend and couldn't find a whole lot to spend it on. I was a collector of original art, but there weren't a whole lot of artists I particularly admired doing sketches. Then I spotted Dave Sim sitting off by himself looking extremely bored and, for some reason thinking that he had a reputation as being a bit of a grouch back then, I got a particularly evil thought. I headed to the dealer's room to track down some cheap reference material, 'cause I hadn't thought to bring mine...<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0z3BzWT9QI/AAAAAAAAAGw/5HXY5LuiiEc/s1600-h/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0z3BzWT9QI/AAAAAAAAAGw/5HXY5LuiiEc/s320/cover.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Okay, every Harlock fan worth his salt had at LEAST one of <a href="http://letsanime.blogspot.com/2008/11/space-promotional-captain-harlock.html">these</a> back in '84.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;"></span>And, cackling like a maniac, I head back over to artist's alley to see if Sim's gotten any richer in the fifteen minutes since I'd left him...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S01GLCR9AXI/AAAAAAAAAHI/qfFzOtFbHQ4/s1600-h/captaincerebus+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S01GLCR9AXI/AAAAAAAAAHI/qfFzOtFbHQ4/s320/captaincerebus+002.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Evidently not.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I almost asked him if this was the strangest request he'd gotten, but I'd heard bizarre stories about Cerebus fandom, so I thought better of it. Mostly, I was thinking that he really, REALLY must've needed the fifteen or twenty bucks. I heard he gave up doing con sketches a few years later. Dumbasses like me are probably the reason.<br />
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I really miss those stupid comic book fandom days. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mike C. has his own <a href="http://mpc3.com/">website</a> up now, though he doesn't do a whole lot of comic book work anymore. Mostly he hangs around the Austin film/arts/music community doing work as an extra on assorted films and TV series like <em>Friday Night Lights,</em> and goofing with musical type people. Check out his sketchbook for fun stuff like Sandra Bullock's <a href="http://mpc3.com/pages/mpcSketches/indexMC.html">shaky butt</a> and William Shatner's <a href="http://mpc3.com/pages/mpcSketches/indexMC.html">"Zone of Respect."</a><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-43401395552084887852010-01-10T05:30:00.012-06:002010-01-10T14:01:31.171-06:00Kenshiro Loses the Eye of the Cat! Fans Turn Grey Hair to Fame!<span style="color: black; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the "day late and dollar short" department...</span><br />
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Geez, you step out the door for fifteen years and when you come back home, you hardly recognize the place. Luckily, some things are easier to find than others, some you don't have to search that hard for. On that note, Mike Pinto had an interesting screed on his <a href="http://www.fanboy.com/">blog</a> a few months back that I recently tripped over when doing searches for once-familiar names. Basically, he wonders whether or not anime fandom has grown to the point where it might start recognizing certain "fanboys-gone-grey" in a way similar to how science fiction conventions used to (and probably still do, but I haven't been to a con in ages, so I dunno for sure) have special "Guest Fans of Honor." Mike <a href="http://www.fanboy.com/2009/10/anime-fandom.html">explains</a>:<br />
<blockquote><span style="background-color: #999999;">But there was always that tradition of taking these old timers and inviting them to be the Fan Guest of Honor at a convention. It was the little bit of loving light some of these folks would get, it was a subcultures way of saying “thank you for writing that fanzine that I read when I was a teen and thought that I was the only science fiction fan in the universe”.</span><br />
</blockquote>Now, being a member of the anime old geezer committee myself, I'm incredibly biased, but it doesn't sound like all that bad an idea to me. In fact, I'd be surprised if con people like Dave Merrill and Meri Davis who were fans themselves back in the day hadn't already thought of something like this. Again, I've not been to an anime con since AWA in '97 or '98 (JAMM), so I don't know.<br />
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That said, the incident that got Mike's dander up (hit the link and read for yourself) might easily be explained by the fact that, well, there's just not a whole lot of information available to the newer convention organizers about what the hell went on back then. Whereas sf fandom revolved around fanzines, anime fandom consisted, for the most part, of a bunch of couch potatoes sitting around watching cartoons. And since this was before the 'net exploded, there just isn't a whole lot of recorded history available about who did what to whom. Sure there were a few club newsletters and APAs and such but compared to what's available today, we're talking cave men with tin cans and string here. So even if Joe Anime was responsible for amazing advances in anime and music kung fu back then, how would anyone know it? <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0mJFdwUDfI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/O3sjs9OMtHg/s1600-h/bobobo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0mJFdwUDfI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/O3sjs9OMtHg/s320/bobobo.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Beware the legendary art of Hanage Shinken!"</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Basically, it's not a great situation to be in, but I feel it's mostly up to US to re-earn that respect if that's what we want. It's partly our own damn fault if no one knows what went on back then. Hell, I've been googling my eyes out over the past several weeks and have found almost nothing outside of a few Dave Merrill web pages, a one-page history of Denver anime fandom, and a bunch of Fred Patten essays. Say what you will about Fred, but he's one hell of a librarian. If every old anime club from 1980-1989 had its own Fred Patten, I might not be making this post. In a lot of ways, our generation of anime fandom is STILL not doing a whole lot more than collectively sitting on the floor in front of the teevee...I guess old habits die hard.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, about that power creep thing...</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Over at <a href="http://ogiuemaniax.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/avoiding-the-shounen-power-creep/">Oguie Maniax</a>, Carl is comparing a few fighting manga and how they deal with the fact that the protags have to get stronger and stronger, which forces the creators of the things to come up with nastier and nastier baddies to keep up. Even before the fighting games hit it big, this was a staple of even the earliest RPGs, which is something that every DM who ever ran a Champions or AD&D campaign can attest to. Since most players like to play the same characters, coming up with that foe to keep that 95th level dwarf paladin busy is a bit more difficult that it was when he had a hard time picking up an axe, much less smiting anything with it. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">One of the cooler aspects of Wizardry 7 was that DWBradley stuck in a critter at the very end of the game who was EXACTLY the same as one you had a tough fight with (and maybe even lost characters to) at the end of the beginner's dungeon in the game. Unless you had a really good memory or had read about it in advance, you were unlikely to remember it and I imagine a lot of smiles came from a lot of computer gamers when the thing went down during the first round of attacks...<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Beware the dreaded solo fairy ninja with the cane of corpus!!!</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>But enough about that. Since I'm practically honor bound to stick my big honker into any and every blog that even mentions <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> in passing, I thought I'd weigh in on this one. Carl is pretty spot on in saying that Kenshiro was amazingly badass at the very beginning of the manga - but one of the peculiar joys of this particular series is that Ken's personality type is perhaps his greatest opponent as well as his greatest strength. Most of the fights he gets into he has to be pretty much forced into. He very seldom goes looking for them. And even then it seems he has a hard time screwing his courage to the sticking-place. It usually takes a few dead bodies.<br />
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Ken has the skill to beat Shin, but not the will. By taking Yuria, and later claiming that she is dead, Shin gives him that will. Ken knows from the very beginning that he eventually has to break Jagi and Raoh's fists, but is reluctant to do so until circumstances force him to. Even in the final fight, it isn't until Raoh produces Yuria's body that Ken does what is necessary. Ken doesn't want to fight Ryuuga or Falco - they both had to push him to fight them for their own reasons.<br />
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In the tougher fights, Buronson and Hara don't make the opponents stronger, they make them puzzles to be solved. Souther has his pressure points reversed. Raoh has musou tensei. Kaiou has...well...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0mmfsB1VXI/AAAAAAAAAGg/EuA0pX_mZJ8/s1600-h/kaioh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0mmfsB1VXI/AAAAAAAAAGg/EuA0pX_mZJ8/s320/kaioh.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"I have a lot of fans in Italy!"</span><br />
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Uh, yeah. What he said. I guess. And he mutters a lot of stuff. And has leaky demon spirit armor. Not to mention foul smelly cavern poison mojo. Or whatever. I still want some of the stuff they were smoking during those issues...or at the very least, what <a href="http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fist_of_the_North_Star">these guys</a> were smoking. I'm pretty easy that way.<br />
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For all his faults, he did carve up Shachi like a turkey on Thanksgiving, so I can't totally hate the character. But of all the puzzles Ken had to solve, Kaiou's right up there. Well, except for the part where Ken gets amnesia and Bat pretends to be him so he can get the crap beaten out of him by the big blind guy who...well, by that time I'd stopped caring. <br />
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BTW, what is it with Jump manga and amnesia, anyway? My two favorite Jump <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Eye_(manga)">manga</a> end with the main characters forgetting all about 15+ volumes worth of stories...might explain why Hara and Tsukasa Hojo ended up in business together...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0m2TLT-JfI/AAAAAAAAAGo/4nZvamy5iAI/s1600-h/cat_s_eye_5_centre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0m2TLT-JfI/AAAAAAAAAGo/4nZvamy5iAI/s320/cat_s_eye_5_centre.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: red;">"</span>So, let me get this straight. We end up in America, but our comic doesn't?!!"</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: yellow;">::sigh::</span> Much as I like his later work, you never forget your first love. <br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-51430427356909383092010-01-08T21:57:00.046-06:002010-01-09T02:07:18.276-06:00Cute Girls Attack Politics! The Audio World is Lost to Comments!<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><span style="font-size: large;">Just a Bunch O' Random Stuff</span><br />
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</div></div><span style="color: red;">(Or any old excuse to play around with the controls on this blog)</span><br />
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</div>I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole "moe" thing. And trying my best to refrain from pulling out any lame Three Stooges jokes. <span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"> (It's fucking HARD).</span> After spending the last couple of days doing research to figure it out, I think I might finally have a handle on it, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Back in the day, Mitsuyoshi (my Japanese friend and provider of all things great and wonderful) would send me episodes of <em>Magical Emi</em> and <em>Pastel Yumi</em> in amongst the <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> and whatever mecha shows Nippan Sunrise was hoisting on us at the time. Do these count? Or were they proto-moe? Or Neantherdal moe?<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0gDzXpifTI/AAAAAAAAAGE/6R0riqQINj4/s1600-h/pastelmoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0gDzXpifTI/AAAAAAAAAGE/6R0riqQINj4/s320/pastelmoe.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Moe or Noe?</span><br />
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</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I never had the heart to tell him to stop because no one was requesting the crap or even watching the crap and the space on the tapes would be better spent on...well, pretty much anything else. Even commercials. Don't laugh, the Japanese had kick ass commercials back in the '80s. But I was always the considerate one and if he wanted to send me girl shows, who was I to argue? It was a small price to pay for all the other cool stuff and, besides, I didn't know if it would be considered rude. But the fact that he included these series in the first place told me something. It may have been something that I didn't want to consider, but I pretty much had to. Maybe he watched them himself? Or if he didn't, he obviously assumed we might. On the other hand, I don't think he ever missed a chance to send us episodes of <em>High School Kimengumi</em> either, so maybe it was just more convenient for him to set his VCR for blocks of shows. I dunno.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0a-WNWL0rI/AAAAAAAAAFM/AFWoSh592O0/s1600-h/HighschoolKimen-gumi_boardgame-cover-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0a-WNWL0rI/AAAAAAAAAFM/AFWoSh592O0/s320/HighschoolKimen-gumi_boardgame-cover-small.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Oh, yeah, no anime snobs in the C/FO-San Antonio, no siree!</span> <br />
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</ul> I think we must've ended up with at least 40<em> Emi/Yumi</em> episodes and almost that many <em>Kimengumi</em> episodes, all taped directly off of Japanese TV. And never got any requests for any of it. Oh, yeah, check that. Just about when I was getting burned out (early 90s) one guy from Austin or Dallas (JAMM again) asked for the Magical Girls episodes. Since they were scattered on ten to fifteen tapes, I didn't have the will left to do the editing job and just let him borrow the tapes himself. He must've really, really liked the shows 'cause I never got those tapes back. Ordinarily, I'd have been mighty pissed and thrown a fandom hissy (and, yeah, I still had a lot of juice back then), but I'd simply stopped caring. If he needed the damned things that badly, God Bless him.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0bCuv7-IaI/AAAAAAAAAFU/a_jyFObNqxQ/s1600-h/wcibv5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0bCuv7-IaI/AAAAAAAAAFU/a_jyFObNqxQ/s320/wcibv5.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Watching 20 hours of this stuff is punishment enough.</span> <br />
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</div><span style="font-size: large;">On to something a bit less depressing...</span><br />
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<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">My recent reincarnation was due, in no small part, to discovering the podcasts at <a href="http://animeworldorder.blogspot.com/">Anime World Order</a>. In particular, the guest interviews with good folks like Tim Eldred, Steve Harrison, Rob Fenelon, Bill Thomas... basically everyone who stuck it out while lamers like me folded up our VCRs and ran for reality. Or away from reality, which may be closer to the truth. If the internet fandom had been running this strong back in '95 or so I might never have left, but once I moved out to rural Louisiana, I pretty much had to shut it down. Aside from a brief trip to AWA in '98, which kind of reinforced the fact that anime fandom had passed me by, I just gave it all up cold turkey. <br />
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<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">But man, listening to Daryl and Clarissa and Gerald, I hear the voices of a lot of people I knew back then. That enthusiasm. It's not exactly the same kind of enthusiasm as when we were standing by ourselves on a busy streetcorner shouting out about the amazingness of something like <em>Penguin's Memory</em> or some other obscure piece of toon work no one on this side of the Pacific knew existed - anime and manga are so much more a part of the general entertainment consciousness now - but it's certainly familiar. Something I never forgot. Now it's more like the tone of voice I used to use on those damned mechaheads when trying to pry them away from their <em>Zeta Gundam</em> toys long enough to watch an episode of <em>City Hunter</em>. Man, I could rock that voice back then too. Up until I got that sofa cushion in the face, anyway. 'Swat I got for having meetings in the living room...<br />
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</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0eiXOMUKWI/AAAAAAAAAFc/25e21RBHlLM/s1600-h/PENGUINS%2520MEMORY%2520JP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0eiXOMUKWI/AAAAAAAAAFc/25e21RBHlLM/s320/PENGUINS%2520MEMORY%2520JP.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Seriously, penguins with automatic weapons and combat stress disorder. Does it fucking GET any better than this?</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div><br />
</div><br />
<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think the magic in the podcasts is hearing the voices. Reading something on the 'net just isn't the same thing as hearing the voices. A large part of the spell of fandom for me was the human interaction. I get the feeling I may have been in the minority in that, but when it was no longer available to me (not a whole lot of cartoon fans in the middle of the swamp), a lot of the appeal just died. But when the three folks at AWO start tossing it back and forth with Walter Amos, I'm right back in the back of a sparcely populated video room at two in the morning with Jeff Blend doing our dueling Akira Kamiya Kenshiro yells. Mine was better, but then I have the feeling I had a lot more practice.<span style="color: red;">*</span> <br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div>I envy those who can't stop for nothin'. I really do. Hearing Bill Thomas go on and on - does that guy even HAVE an off switch? Simply amazing he can keep up the cartoon mojo after all this time. Would that everyone had that kind of passion for something, and wear it out in the open so easily. But, again, that's not always something that can come alive on the page or the monitor, as hard as we try. But it just freakin' JUMPS out of the speakers at you. So guys (and gal) at AWO, keep up the good fight. I'll be listening. <br />
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</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As for this blogging thing...</span> <br />
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<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Though this is my first real attempt at a blog of my own, I've actually been blogsurfing for quite a while. Just not anime blogs. Or even entertainment blogs. Nope, I have the worst sort of blog addiction. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm a slave to the dreaded political blogoshere. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0fHarC5KbI/AAAAAAAAAFk/pQRUXWMj-ew/s1600-h/john_stewart_facepalm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0fHarC5KbI/AAAAAAAAAFk/pQRUXWMj-ew/s320/john_stewart_facepalm.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">It could be worse. I could be addicted to recovery blogs.</span> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">I read a good crossection of the political blogosphere, mainly HotAir, Sullivan, Instapundit, the "Juicebox Mafia," The Corner, Drudge, HuffPo, etc. I generally hang on Ta-Nahisi Coates' site, simply 'cause whereas most political blogs have cesspool comments sections, his is pretty straight. And he doesn't mind if we talk NFL and isn't terribly obnoxious for a Dallas Cowboys' fan... <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">I certainly don't intend to get political here, 'cause that path leads to <a href="http://chizumatic.mee.nu/uss_chizumatic">DOOOOOOOOM!!</a> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #444444;">There is method to my madness. The reason I started blogging about anime is because it is utterly inconsequential, and thus won’t attract the attention of readers who are earnest.</span> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">By "earnest" I'm assuming he means the anklebiters who frequent most high-profile political blogs, half of whom know more about everything than you do and the other half of whom are there to make snarky comments on the off-chance that someone, anyone, will pay attention to what they have to say. The traffic on those sites is unbelievable, which in turn draw more people looking for an audience for their pithy comments. I was going to talk a bit about the "inconsequential" part, but I just don't feel all that qualified. It certainly was back when I was a fan, but I dunno about now. With every new Miyazaki film getting the Disney distribution treatment over here, it's hard to argue about the Japanese medium as a whole not counting in the big picture, anymore than we'd deem the Pixar releases as inconsequential. Some Miyazaki films do make the "best of" lists of high-profile film critics on this side of the Pacific, after all. Oh, well, so much for the "not qualified" part. Meh. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">In any case, one of the aspects of the higher-profile blogs that I do find interesting is the way they feed off each other, even if it's not all that pretty to watch at times. Politics will do that, of course, but I've also seen a lot of back and forth in the comments sections of the anime blogs I've managed to track down over the past two weeks or so. So why doesn't this kind of chatter show up on the actual blogs themselves? Is it that some commentors don't have their own blogs in which to answer? I dunno, but I've easily seen some comments that I thought really were deserving of a blog post and a trackback and a link, etc. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />
<div><br />
</div><br />
<div><br />
</div><span style="font-size: large;">And now a word from the press secretary to the star...</span> <span style="font-size: large;"></span> <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div>One more bit of...err...presidential politics before I'm outa here. I'm about as big a "Lost" fan as you can get (hey, kids, flashbacks!!!), but it says something when the press secretary has to come out and let you know the Prez isn't gonna ruin the premiere of your <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/lost-fans-rejoice-state-of-the-union-wont-preempt-season-premiere/">show.</a> <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Oops, wrong Locke</span> <br />
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</div> Not sure exactly what it says, but I'm sure it says something. <br />
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</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0f195q03AI/AAAAAAAAAFs/xcWCj6UwJd0/s1600-h/LaMimay2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0f195q03AI/AAAAAAAAAFs/xcWCj6UwJd0/s320/LaMimay2.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Why don't you open the comments section to everyone?"</span> <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0f4lnk1_JI/AAAAAAAAAF0/Dd61oi5xLcA/s1600-h/_Live-eviL__Captain_Harlock__TV--28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0f4lnk1_JI/AAAAAAAAAF0/Dd61oi5xLcA/s320/_Live-eviL__Captain_Harlock__TV--28.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Working on it! Working on it!"</span> <br />
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</ul><span style="color: red;">*</span> We weren't actually being rude. Well, okay, maybe we were, but we had an excuse. See, back in the day when we ran all-night video rooms, the convention officials frowned on people using them as free room and board for the night, if you know what I mean. And nothing, son, I mean NOTHING wakes up dozing fanboys like a healthy dose of ... <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"Ata ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta taaaaaa.... waaATAAaaa!!!!"</span> <span style="font-size: large;"></span> <br />
<br />
In stereo, no less. RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-35082673050927935962010-01-07T15:15:00.016-06:002010-01-21T02:03:48.664-06:00Translation Fight! Heat Sink the Mecha Song of Woe!<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">.<span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;"><</span></span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red; font-size: xx-small;">clears throat></span></span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">..</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">...</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">....</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">"Soldiers of warlords from deep space."</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Okay, survey time! Does the above cause you to:<br />
<br />
A) Start humming and nodding and getting all kinds of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcqJ-IHU5Q">glassy-eyed,</a><br />
<br />
B) Quietly curse a certain name under your breath. Or maybe even out loud, depending on how big your own head happens to be,<br />
<br />
C) Start to chuckle and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10hkOeLuqCI">clicking,</a> or<br />
<br />
D) Roll your eyes, scratch your head and bounce over to a blog where someone's talking about shit you know.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For my part, I've always considered that original Harmony Gold <em>Macross</em> release as a kind of rorschach test for anime fans. Or did back then, because it's almost reached legendary status now. Not "legendary" as in amazingly great or anything, but more in the sense that no one's actually SEEN it and still lives to tell the tale. Like the Loch Ness Monster or that auto engine that runs for 200 miles on a gallon of water that your uncle's friend says his brother invented back in 1965, everyone's heard the stories and lived with the eventual Robotech legacy (for better or worse), but hardly anyone's seen the damned video.<br />
<br />
It was actually pretty good. <br />
<br />
And it played a fair part in getting people over here interested in anime. Certainly in San Antonio.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0YXyCeZOUI/AAAAAAAAAEE/__bIUxV_KZc/s1600-h/200px-ComicoMacross1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0YXyCeZOUI/AAAAAAAAAEE/__bIUxV_KZc/s320/200px-ComicoMacross1.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">See, the video itself is so legendary as to elude my admittedly lousy kung fu websurfing ability. So you'll have to settle for the Comico Comics adaptation, which was also pretty good.</span> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Back in '83, anime fandom in San Antonio basically consisted of Ben Dunn and a few of his friends sitting around in his living room watching third gen (or worse) cartoons he'd begun to scrape together from wherever he could. Most of the core group were gamers and comic book fans and this "anime" stuff was a logical extension of that, even if we couldn't understand what the hell was going on. I was never a mecha (actually, we just called 'em "giant robots" back then) fan, but some of the others were. The episode of <em>Macross</em> he got must've had been taped six or seven times before it got to us, 'cause it was almost unwatchable. Of course, some of the guys ate it up. Me, I could tell Irongear from Dougram (I mean, who couldn't? - the former was fucking HUGE), but that was about it. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">At that time we had maybe four comic book shops in the entire city, as well as a few gaming shops. We made the rounds of them all each week, between the five or six of us, always on the lookout for new crap the others might be interested in. One day Steve Blake came running in with a copy of this new game he bought. A game with a bunch of giant robots. A bunch of giant robots that he recognized from some of the anime we'd seen over at Ben's. The next few hours were spent over Brian Sutton's house - Brian-O was always the go-to guy when it came to giant robots (probably still is) - unwrapping the plastic toys from the <em>Battledroids </em><a href="http://brianscache.com/battledroids/">game</a> and placing them on the map and basically trying to figure out why all these toys from different anime series got put together in the same game and what the hell "heat sinks" had to do with anything.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0YooeBUuuI/AAAAAAAAAEM/Lt6qaKQ3tvo/s1600-h/battletech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0YooeBUuuI/AAAAAAAAAEM/Lt6qaKQ3tvo/s320/battletech.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Yeah, FASA had to change the name because some Hollywood big shot sued over use of the word "droids." Like he owned the word or something.</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So a few months pass and even I start getting into this "mecha" thing enough to maybe tell a destroid from a valkyrie. Well, okay, one of them turns into something else and the other doesn't. But I'm still lost when Brian and Steve start talking VF-1As and VF-1Js and whatever, so I don't feel like I've earned my geek merit badge in <em>Macross</em> obscura. But, still, I can pretty much hang. Plus, I get a job in an actual comic book store, which is way cooler. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Next to the slight discount on comics and first dibs on stock, one of the best perks of being in the biz back then was that I had access to the catalogues and order forms and such, so I had advance knowledge of what was coming out and when. Believe me, in a gang of nerds, this was a position of great power. So, imagine the smile on my face when I was rummaging through our distributor's catalogue and came across the original solicitation for that Harmony Gold <em>Macross </em>video release. We'd not become an actual connected organization at that time and so didn't have the access to information that the larger anime groups had. So this basically came as a total shock to us all. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Great news, right? Well, sorta. The main problem with that HG release was that it was fucking expensive for a bunch of geeks without a whole lot of disposable income. Hell, all we'd seen was raw Macross (and lousy copies at that), who knew what the adaptation job would be like for a video we couldn't return? And, to make matters worse, my boss wasn't getting enough of a mark-up to give us a discount - so Steve, Brian and I divvied the cost between us, crossing our fingers that we'd all get enough use out of it to make it worthwhile. Plus, it was just natural to make copies of everything back then. Just the way things were.<br />
<br />
Bottom line - the video did come in, was fairly lengthy (three whole episodes!) and pretty much thoroughly enjoyable, even for the cost. Since we'd never seen any translations of the originals, "Rick Yamada" and "Lisa" Hayase were plenty good enough for us. We'd just formed the C/FO-San Antonio and had our first formal meeting that month - with that Harmony Gold <em>Macross </em>video as the feature.<em> </em>I think we had maybe 20 or so attendees, which was pretty darned good for something that started in Ben Dunn's living room. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0ZGNcX0III/AAAAAAAAAEU/dHWLiWvRUYk/s1600-h/battle1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0ZGNcX0III/AAAAAAAAAEU/dHWLiWvRUYk/s320/battle1.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Yeah, I admit it. I still have one.</span><br />
</div><br />
Like many other clubs, we generally got the whole "it's not in English, so I'm not bothering with it" excuse a lot back in those early days. Mocking Carl Macek and <em>Robotech</em> became the cool thing to do as the '80s progressed, but I never really bought into that crap, mainly because I saw the effect that (even badly) translated anime had on us newbies back then. If it's good, the source material will generally win out. Snickers over "Captain Warlock" talking like John Wayne in that Roger Corman <em>GE999</em> film invariably led to questions about where this guy or that gal could find out more about the original. Showing something like <em>Warriors of the Wind</em> led to requests for copies of <em>Nausicaa</em>. I know, I saw it happen time and time again.<br />
<br />
I'd do a formal review of that <em>Macross</em> vid, if I had it. Hell, I dunno who finally ended up with it. Probably Brian Sutton. He's the one who loved singing along with that damned song. If you run into him at a convention, tell him I told you to have him sing it for you. He'll love you for it. Trust me. I'm sure he still remembers the words...<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0ZMDRDm-MI/AAAAAAAAAEc/84_Ro9yPuwI/s1600-h/disclosure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0ZMDRDm-MI/AAAAAAAAAEc/84_Ro9yPuwI/s320/disclosure.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">In the spirit of full disclosure, these were actually kinda fun to do.</span><br />
</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-11513832654772157892010-01-06T04:36:00.005-06:002010-01-06T04:49:55.185-06:00Japan Cartoons Attack Memory Two! Texas Suffers the Blogging Lag!The first thing to go is your memory. Or so they tell me. Doing the "googling for cool crap I missed out on during the past 15 or so years" thing and stumbling across this name or that location or this publication and that date, I found myself scratching my brain and came to the conclusion that I'm gonna need to do some shorthand here. A lot. And so I give you...<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">AMM</span>. "Another Memory Malfunction." Proceeded by a letter, depending on how frustrating it is. <span style="color: red;">D</span>amn,<span style="color: red;">AMM</span>. <span style="color: red;">J</span>ust<span style="color: red;">AMM</span>. <span style="color: red;">W</span>hatthe<span style="color: red;">H</span>ell,<span style="color: red;">AMM</span>. Okay, the latter brings back memories of a bunch of particularly ugly records I actually spent money on back in the day, so I'll skip it. A quarter of my family died of Alzheimers, but I'm hoping it doesn't get that bad.<br />
<br />
I never was that much into Steve Martin, but he did have this really great bit in his stand up routine called "I Forgot." Basically, he'd throw out all of these outrageous things you might do and get away with if you only remember two basic words. "I forgot." Get caught robbing that bank? "Sorry, officer, I forgot bank robbery was illegal." Owe a million in taxes? No problem. When the IRS shows up at your door, you give him your best puzzled look and tell him "I forgot." And, of course, when it doesn't work, he stepped up to his trademark "Well, EXCUUUUUSSEEE ME!" <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RPvKk0YUI/AAAAAAAAADs/XvrKBKSoJrw/s1600-h/Iforgot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RPvKk0YUI/AAAAAAAAADs/XvrKBKSoJrw/s320/Iforgot.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Now, where was I?"</span><br />
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</div>Most humor works because there's an amount of truth to it. In the case of the Martin routine, the "truth" is that everyone can identify with somebody forgetting he owed the IRS a million bucks. Or at least using it as an excuse. Never having had a million bucks, I have to guess at this stuff. But unless you're Commander Data or Aunt Tilly (we all have an Aunt Tilly, she's the one who is always right even when she's not), we've all been there. Hell, even HAL forgot stuff, though he had a little bit of help.<br />
<br />
So, where am I going with this? <br />
<br />
"I forgot." <br />
<br />
See how easy that was?<br />
<br />
Seriously, I don't seem to be the only one with a faulty memory. Seems like the entire second generation of American anime fandom has collective amnesia. Well, almost the entire first generation has the same problem, but they're fucking OLD, so I can forgive 'em. Hell, they're all on Medicare by now. Computers? Hah! The orderlies are probably having to remind them about how to use the newfangled remote controls for the television set in the common room...<br />
<br />
But my generation shouldn't have that particular problem. Hell, even I can kinda, sorta manage this stuff, though I still can't get a handle on the linking thing. Or the HTML thing. Or the "gadgets" thing on this Blogger site. Much less get a scanner to work, which is why all of you have to put up with lousy digital pictures. But the point is that if I can learn to do this web publishing stuff, just about anyone can.<br />
<br />
So, why do so few of us?<br />
<br />
Coming across this <a href="http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=235">gem</a> (as well as <a href="http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=317">this one</a>) from Dave Merrill brought two questions to mind. Why'd they get hidden away on StarBlazers.com - the articles aren't linked from the "links" page as far as I can tell - and why'd it take someone from outside Texas to finally put this shit down? There may be a few other hidden Texas-type buried treasures around the net that I'm not aware of, but I think I dug kinda deep and came up empty. Is no one really interested in the history of anime fandom on this side of the Pacific? Or is it just a Texas thing? Something to be ashamed of? Sure, there weren't a whole lot of people back then actually interested in putting forth effort more than the minimal needed to organize the viewing experience, but this stuff has absolutely gone nuclear since the '80s. Anime cons draw tens of thousands of fans now. So where is the interest in the history of the fandom? And where are the sources? Surely, a bunch of someones not named Dave Merrill and Fred Patten are still alive and breathing and have better memories than I do.<br />
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So where are the blogs? The articles? You know, <a href="http://letsanime.blogspot.com/search/label/fandom">this?</a><br />
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</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RTHe_xcwI/AAAAAAAAAD0/Rbu_Ob4CDs0/s1600-h/dorks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RTHe_xcwI/AAAAAAAAAD0/Rbu_Ob4CDs0/s320/dorks.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">What does it say about me that I actually recognize three of these guys?</span><br />
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</div>One of the things I hope to accomplish with this blog, assuming I can stay focused for longer than two weeks, is to commit some of my scattered memories (such as they are) down before they're lost forever. Seeing that video from Denver and the names Rich Arnold and Scott Frazier and hearing the Anime World Order podcasts with Walter Amos, Rob Fenelon, Bill Thomas... Man, my one regret back in the '80s was not having met Bill Thomas. Every freakin' American anime fan should meet Bill Thomas before they die, just to see how it's done. <br />
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But, no, I was pretty much stuck down here in Texas. Which wasn't exactly a lousy place to be if you were an anime fan during the '80s, just...inconvenient. For all of you who have never spent any real time down here, Texas is big. Really, really big. It's 200 miles from San Antonio to Houston, 250 from Houston to Dallas, etc. Grab a map and look. So basically, Texas anime fandom didn't overlap much, except at the conventions or when supergoofs like Ben Dunn or I took it upon ourselves to drive the 270 miles to an EDC meeting in Dallas or when some guys from College Station (which is centered pretty much between the three major cites) made the trek to monthly meetings. But all the major cities were represented during the '80s. Except maybe El Paso. Never met any fans from there at any of the state conventions I went to.<br />
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Dave Merrill did a great write-up on the Earth Defense Command in one of the articles linked above, so I won't mention them here except to say that it was the first anime club I joined back in either '83 or '84. JAMM, and all that. Ben and I rented a car and drove up to Dallas at least twice for meetings before we founded the C/FO chapter in San Antonio, one of those times ending in a car wreck two miles from my house. But that's terribly embarrassing, so I'll pleased to be shutting up about it now. Dallas also had a C/FO chapter for a short period of time, led by Mike and Lea Hernandez. <br />
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The EDC also had a chapter in Ft. Worth, but there was friction between the two leaderships, and the Ft. Worth chapter reformed as the SDF-Ft. Worth. My memory is blanking on any of the members, but I'm thinking Karen Helmer(sp) was one of them. She totally rocked a Misa Hayase costume during the Nasfic in Austin in 1985.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RlcO41oBI/AAAAAAAAAD8/T4hNL24xEmU/s1600-h/317f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0RlcO41oBI/AAAAAAAAAD8/T4hNL24xEmU/s320/317f.jpg" /></a> <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Yeah, I was at both of these. More embarrassing stories to come.</span><br />
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</div>Austin had the first C/FO chapter in Texas, founded by Mike Wright. Ben tells me he used to drive up to their meetings before he was legal to do so. Heh, I bet I get in big trouble for that one, but it just shows what some people will do for love. Anyway, most of the tapes that Ben used to start the C/FO-San Antonio came from Mike, whom I assume got them from the C/FO in LA. I finally got to meet Mike myself at that '85 Nasfic. He was in charge off the vid room, but the con organizers were dicks and wouldn't let him show anything that wasn't "legal," which meant a lot of <em>Voltron</em> and <em>Robotech</em>. At least I think he could show <em>Robotech</em>. Things got a bit loopy for me as I set a personal record by staying awake for 52 straight hours...<br />
Austin remained a hotbed of Texas anime fandom throughout the '80s, mostly due to UT-Austin drawing students from all across the US. I know Walter Amos was there for a time, and they actually got to use fairly large meeting rooms to show their anime. <br />
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Austin also could lay claim to not one, but two retail outlets that sold anime goods - Alpha Sector and Atomic City. Alpha Sector sold mainly models and toys, whereas Atomic City was a bit more...uh...unique. The owner had Godzilla tatoos all over his body. We'd have road trips up to Austin (50 miles both ways)every month or so just to see what new stuff they might happen to get in. In later years, Alpha Sector would move from the south side to the north side, but Atomic City remained in a neighborhood near the UT campus.<br />
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College Station (home to Texas A&M) also had a fairly robust anime community through most of the '80s, though most of them came from in-state. I saw many of them at the various cons throughout the state, including AggieCon on the A&M campus, where they generally ran a pretty nice video room. I'm blanking on most of the names (DAMM), with the notable exceptions of Kirk Hauser and Alex Botello. Alex was a fixture at just about all of the Texas sf/comic book conventions during the '80s. He sold anime model kits he'd get from connections in Mexico and was simply one of those characters you don't easily forget. I think just about everyone in anime fandom in Texas had an Alex story, if you know what I mean. Mine had to do with him meeting my "good-looking seester," at a Dallas con, but it's more embarrassing than the car wreck story...<br />
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Houston remained an enigma to me. It had the largest Asian community on any Texas city even back then, and sported one of the few stores in Texas that sold imported manga, so I'm fairly sure that there were a few anime fan groups, but I can't ever recall meeting a representative of one until the '80s were almost over. After I moved to SA from Houston in '80, I very rarely got to go back there for conventions and the ones that I did attend didn't seem to have much of a anime presence at all. Several of the comic book stores sold anime stuff, but I can't even recall seeing flyers for any groups posted. I'm hoping that if anyone reading this has more info about activity during that period, they'll email or comment - or, better yet, do a full write-up in their own blog. Considering that one of the larger anime importers ended up based there, I figure probably was a presence I just didn't notice. <br />
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Then, of course, there was San Antonio. I'll get more into our little club o' fun in depth in many a future entry. In the meantime, I'm going to go through more assorted crap that I didn't manage to throw away in an effort to supplement my feeble memory. Unfortunately, I've moved several times since '95, and most of my old zines, newsletters and such found other homes. I seriously never thought I'd end up back here, either mentally or emotionally. <br />
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Which might go a long way to explaining where everyone else went.RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-11567815257202662892010-01-03T03:24:00.010-06:002010-01-03T03:43:55.150-06:00Memories Attack the Mind! Beware the Imagining of the Past!One of the more interesting things about being dead to anime for fifteen years is that, for the most part, everything is new again. Even the old stuff. With the advent of easy subtitling, more access to translations (not to mention, many more people qualified and interested in translating), and more than one or two companies willing to bring stuff over here, even the anime I knew and loved back during the second wave of anime fandom has become more accessable to me. <br />
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And that can lead to dangerous side-effects. It's very similar to the warnings that I used to dish out to newbies back in the day when they'd beg and plead to know what the guy in the green hair was yelling at the gal with the big boobs while their respective mecha were self-destructing. All that dialogue. All that drama. All that swelling background music. The explosions. I'd put on my very best Dr. Zaius apeface and channel Maurice Evans best I could. "Don't look for it, Taylor, you may not like what you find."<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_JEkkTZyI/AAAAAAAAACs/s0k0eqCk2yI/s1600-h/dr_zaius-796265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_JEkkTZyI/AAAAAAAAACs/s0k0eqCk2yI/s320/dr_zaius-796265.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><insert zaius=""><span style="color: red;">"They're just making dumb comments about the weather, you idiot!"</span><br />
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More often than not, all that sound and fury could be boiled down to "We're both fucked. And I've always hated you and hope you die and go to hell!" Generally, what was on the screen was what was on the screen. But it always sounds better in our head. That's just human nature mucking with our minds.<br />
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Don't believe me? If you can bear it, sit down in front of your TV set and mute the volume during a soap opera and start trying to figure out what Dr. Moron is talking to Nurse Airhead about. Invariably, after two or three minutes, Dr Moron is telling her how much he wants to rip off her tidy whites and do the horizontal booty boogie with her. Unless of course, you're a woman, in which case they're talking about...well, pretty much the same thing except maybe with a glass of champaign and five more minutes of foreplay. Don't deny it, ladies, we're not the gender that writes all that crappy "ship" fiction. Yeah, I went there.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_K4LzE3jI/AAAAAAAAAC0/n0mgSjD5jxQ/s1600-h/nightShift_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_K4LzE3jI/AAAAAAAAAC0/n0mgSjD5jxQ/s320/nightShift_1.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><insert doctor="" nurse=""><span style="color: red;">"Wanna Fuck?" </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Sorry, Doctor, but I'm in love with Nurse Hilly." </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Can I watch?"</span><br />
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Nine times out of ten, we just expect too much from shows we love. And that only gets amplified when we can't understand what the characters are saying. Hell, sometimes it's even amplified when we have a fairly good idea of what they're saying. Case in point, <em>Hokuto no Ken 2</em>. Now, back in 1985 or so, I had lengthy phone conversations (along with the humongous bills to prove it) with fans who spoke Japanese to one extent or another over exactly what was going on in this anime we all loved. Well, okay that all seven of us loved. Finding people willing to devote time and effort to translating this particular show was, to put it mildly, difficult. The first generation of American anime fen were all into <em>Zeta Gundam</em> by that time<em>.</em> Or, <em>Patalliro</em>, if they happened to have two XX chromosomes. So when it came to <em>HnK</em>, I had two options - I could go and bother people like Mary Kennard (who at least had a passing interest in the show and was still learning Japanese at the time) or hope to find a native Japanese fan who was into the thing. I got lucky on both counts, but that topic deserves a future blog post of its very own.<br />
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Anyway, the original run of the <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> anime (up to the death of Raoh) is, on the surface, fairly easy to understand with minimum translation aid - the plot itself is pretty straightforward - the difficulty was always in the mythology and some of the more, shall we say, flowery prose that Buronson employed to depict what was, at its base, a show about a bunch of sweaty, bloody, macho dudes beating the crap out of each other. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_MSVovSYI/AAAAAAAAAC8/Z4VcZ1tGqY8/s1600-h/Roberts+062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_MSVovSYI/AAAAAAAAAC8/Z4VcZ1tGqY8/s320/Roberts+062.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="color: red;">"Sei-Tei Souther This!"</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, once I got connected with folks like Tomoaki Okuzumi and Miyako Graham and started to produce a few (admittedly sparce) bits of translation, that first series became fairly easy for me to follow. Certainly easy enough to explain to the (very) few fans that showed up at cons asking about it or, more rarely, actually asked for copies of the anime from the C/FO-San Antonio tape library. Helping matters somewhat were the subtitled episodes appearing through Hawaii (and by the grace of one Laurine White of Sacramento, bless her heart and may she live forever), but those translations were extremely simple and the subtitles tended to fade the more copies that were made. And, believe me, we made a LOT of copies of those. I'm amazed my tapes of those held up as well as they did.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">In any case, we were fairly happy campers when it came to those first 109 episodes - between a core bunch of us, we could pretty much answer most of the questions that came our way and I was feeling pretty good about the chances of turning a few more people onto what I thought was a pretty damn cool show. We were fat, happy, fanboys eagerly awaiting the rest of this absolutely wonderful excuse for wasting copius amounts of time, just knowing in our heart of hearts that things could only get better. Yeah, all the girly men were into <em>Saint Seiya</em> (mainly 'cause that's where all the fangirls were)<em> </em>but we were keeping strong the faith, sure that, fifteen years from now, Kenshiro would still be making heads explode and <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> would take its place among the greats, right next to <em>Tetsuwan Atom</em> and <em>Yamato</em>.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_WoHAOk7I/AAAAAAAAADE/qJZftq0Hy4k/s1600-h/juuza-the-cloud-1007a1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_WoHAOk7I/AAAAAAAAADE/qJZftq0Hy4k/s320/juuza-the-cloud-1007a1e.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Zippedy-do-da, zippidy aaaaaaa..."</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">But then a funny thing happened on the way to manga/anime immortality. Buronson and Tetsuo Hara discovered LSD. Or the Super Adventure Club. Or the downside of fame. Or the "Iron Fist of Editorial Sucktitude!" Or something. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Something really, really disappointing. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">The phone calls from Tomoaki became more and more confused as he tried to explain to me about Gento and Hokuto Ryuuken and why Captain America was palling around with Bat, Rin and another Rin in an underground cavern. On that note, what the hell was up with all the caves in <em>Hokuto no Ken 2</em>? Did Tetsuo Hara use all his money from the first series and take up spelunking as a hobby?! Tomoaki took to mailing me the Shonen Jump pages right after having read them, as if that would make them somehow easier for me to understand. Or maybe he was just so disgusted at the way things were going that he didn't want to keep them. After a while, it became fairly clear to me that he was trying his best to have it make sense to himself as he explained it to my addled whiteboy brain - which was a bad sign. A very bad sign. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_dAYcim0I/AAAAAAAAADM/x7NEcyvAgnc/s1600-h/Roberts+067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Sz_dAYcim0I/AAAAAAAAADM/x7NEcyvAgnc/s320/Roberts+067.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"You are already confused."</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">By the time we got over to Shura and Kenshiro was climbing the hill of fighters to get to the demon Rashou and found he had more brothers than Jacob and Joseph (and an adopted sister, as well as four hundred MORE people who saved his life when he was a kid), I started to get the idea that someone or a bunch of someones on the Hokuto home team didn't have their heads in the game anymore. But the cherry on top of crap mountain was when Kaiou sent Rin away on his horse under the Hokuto Sleeping Beauty spell and everyone in the entire land of Shura knew what was going on. Except Ken. It's like Kaiou got his jollies by sending lovestruck women all over the land on a regular basis. Kinda sick, though it might go a long way to explaining all the brain-dead men in Ken's world and how they managed to propagate.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, yeah, I lost a lot of enthusiasm over the series as it went on. I kind figured I wasn't the only one. Still, the mythology was intriguing and the whole Hokuto Souken/Ryuuken thing remained fascinating beyond what Tomoaki could manage to explain to me. I mean, these are the same guys who gave us 14+ manga collections and 100+ anime episodes of excellence, right? Surely they had some kick-ass explanations for that statue in the cave and the two women with the babies sacrificed to the wolves and why Raoh kept popping up all over the damned place when he died four volumes ago. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, after my re-awakening a couple weeks back, it was with wide eyes and light heart that I skipped over to watch the subtitled streaming <em>HnK 2</em> episodes that have appeared on the net in the years while I was sleeping away in blissful ignorance... <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0A9COxf6hI/AAAAAAAAADU/4stvlaLCI4Q/s1600-h/dr-zaius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0A9COxf6hI/AAAAAAAAADU/4stvlaLCI4Q/s320/dr-zaius.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"Silly human."</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, pretty much. It's almost always better in your head. And in your memories as well. There's always a risk of mistranslation or, more likely, a certain personal bias that creeps in; a translation "style" if you will. I recall Miyako Graham's manga translation of the Toki/Raoh fight (my favorite chapter of the manga series) that I asked her to do for me waaaay back when. I dunno how much was Buronson and how much was Miyako, but the prose read like a <em>Romeo and Juliet/Of Mice and Men</em> mash-up. I really wish I could find my copy to scan part of it here, but unfortunately it got lost somewhere in the fifteen-year void. Not that I didn't dig the shit out of it, but I'm afraid that Buronson is probably a lot closer to Tarantino than he is to Shakespeare and Steinbeck.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">The episodes I watched were translated and subtitled by "HeartofMadness," which I assume is, well, a group of fan translators and subtitlers. I'll leave the heavy crit to those out there who have seen other work by this bunch, but by and large, I thought they did a really good job with the episodes I watched. I'd seen enough fan work back in the day to recognize good effort. The people who did these, really love the source material. In some cases, maybe more than it deserves. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0BE9xpIiII/AAAAAAAAADc/Dyf71TnTsYk/s1600-h/kaioh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0BE9xpIiII/AAAAAAAAADc/Dyf71TnTsYk/s320/kaioh.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"My Hokuto Ryuuken will smash your Hokuto Souken. </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Oh, yeah, and love is for losers."</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Don't get me wrong, there are parts of <em>Hokuto no Ken 2</em> that I still love. Falco can stand with the better characters of the first series, albeit on one leg. I thought the whole "Raoh as savior" angle was great, even if they did overplay it. By the time the <em>HnK 2 </em>anime showed in Japan, my thinking was always that Raoh had overshadowed Kenshiro as the most memorable character from the first series, an opinion backed up by the way they chose to end the feature film. It's interesting to see that the recent film/OVA releases as well as the TV anime from last year (well, okay, two years now) heavily spotlighted Raoh, showing the character is still amazingly popular after all these years. Kaiou himself was a fairly lame mash of Souther and Raoh, but man, did his introduction scene rock. I thought the "Kenshiro resurrection" scene in #140 was a slight improvement over the obvious parallel sewer scene during the Souther arc. The idea of the blood of the old man seeping into the comatose Ken and waking the "spirit of hokuto shinken" or whatever was brilliant. Hell, Ken doesn't even have to be conscious to handle your basic thugs. Good stuff. And, then there was Shachi...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Damn, I have to admit that I hated that character back in the original run. Absolutely loathed him. He was a cockier Rei with a lesser voice actor, and even the character arc was similar. Even after it was apparent where the arc was going, I didn't buy into the rehabilitation of the guy in the way I did with, say, Ein. It wasn't until Tomoaki sent me the manga (about a month after the episodes aired, which is a bit assbackwards to the way it usually worked) that covered the Shachi/Kaiou Hokuto Souken statue cavern fight that the light bulb went off in my head.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">If you've only watched the <em>Hokuto no Ken 2</em> anime version of that scene, you're really missing out. Go find the manga. Trust me on this. It's not bad enough that Buronson and Hara had the guy pluck out his own eye, but remember that line from Kaiou in the anime about breaking Shachi's body? In the manga, he actually does it - he basically dismembers him, piece by piece during that fight. Arms, legs, pieces of Shachi go here there and everywhere. Back in the day, my warped mind pictured Buronson and Hara in a bar somewhere, grouching over the fact that the fighting manga genre that they'd spent their sweat and labor on was being slowly taken over by the bishonen boys over in the <em>Saint Seiya</em> corner of the Jump offices.<br />
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"We'll show them. Let's take apart our pretty boy, one arm at a time!"<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0BgO4T7WkI/AAAAAAAAADk/8191oV5eh5A/s1600-h/shachi3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/S0BgO4T7WkI/AAAAAAAAADk/8191oV5eh5A/s320/shachi3.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="color: red;">"Geez, Gibson, you sadistic bastard, what did I ever do to you?"</span><br />
</div><br />
heh, seriously, I wish I had a decent scanner so I could put the grosser bits on here. Just the thought of it makes me smile. Yeah, there were a few things about <em>HnK 2</em> that can still do that. <br />
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I just wish there were more...<br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-70940948953211477342009-12-31T01:11:00.001-06:002009-12-31T01:14:40.208-06:00The Robot Boy Strikes the US Army! Hold Fast the Sacred Wood Shoes!<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>What's the standard opening question in nearly every single interview you've ever read with anyone on this side of the Pacific on the subject of anime? Yeah, me too. <br />
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But when anyone asks me when I first got interested in the stuff, I give them an answer that, due to accident of military deployment (my father's), generally raises eyebrows, along with a healthy dose of "no, shutthefuckup."<br />
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How long have I been interested in anime?<br />
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This long:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szw9Eb-otJI/AAAAAAAAACU/O7UcMQkHRus/s1600-h/Roberts+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szw9Eb-otJI/AAAAAAAAACU/O7UcMQkHRus/s320/Roberts+002.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div align="center"><span style="color: red;">Yep, those are mine. My mother tells me she paid fifty cents for 'em.</span><br />
</div><br />
My father was in the US Army and was deployed to Okinawa in 1964. Like a lot of good soldiers, he dragged his family (in this case, my mother and I) with him. My first memories were of fishing the rice paddies, catching honey bees in jars, and, yes watching <em>Tetsuwan Atom</em> in Japanese. Or I think it was Japanese, the series was translated and released around the world by 1965, so it could have been in English on Okinawa since it was still under US control then. I was a whole five years old at the time, so I probably didn't care a whole lot. My mother also tells me we used to watch <em>Gunsmoke</em> in Japanese, but if you tuned to a particular radio channel, you'd get the translation in English while you watched. Oh, the things the US military did to keep the troops happy. But now part of me really wants to hear what James Arness as Matt Dillon sounded like in Japanese. I'm thinking Kenshiro with a badge and a gun.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzxEAitvsgI/AAAAAAAAACc/GzG47VkfUgk/s1600-h/Roberts+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzxEAitvsgI/AAAAAAAAACc/GzG47VkfUgk/s320/Roberts+003.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">No, seriously, if Abby Sciuto from <em>NCIS</em> ran these puppies under a microscope I'm sure she'd find dead Gibson toe tissue on Astro Boy's face.</span><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really don't know how, some forty-five years later, I still have these things - but I do. It's not like they take up a lot of space, but it's difficult to believe my parents didn't throw them away sometime during one of our thirty-five moves since Okinawa in '65. Kind of a miracle, actually. Of course, once I got heavily into anime fandom in the early '80's, there was no way in hell these little well-worn getas of my youth were going anywhere. Along with the green stuffed frog my great-grandmother made for me, they'll probably end up in my coffin. Along with all the <em>Hokuto no Ken</em> anime cels. And the "All About the Man" Jump Special. And the <em>Queen Emeraldas</em> manga. And the <em>Catseye</em> manga. And...aw, hell, I guess I better not plan on dying. It'd be too expensive.<br />
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</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzxLBLVRCmI/AAAAAAAAACk/l1QM08M-a2Q/s1600-h/Roberts+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzxLBLVRCmI/AAAAAAAAACk/l1QM08M-a2Q/s320/Roberts+005.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">And, no, you can't have 'em. They wouldn't fit you anyway.</span><br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-46982407877309420502009-12-28T22:54:00.008-06:002009-12-30T23:46:55.379-06:00The Paper Bag Attacks With Beer Advertising! Fight, Videotape Gods, Fight!So I'm listening to a football game Sunday. That's not unusual in and of itself, I've always liked football. Half of my family is Cajun from deep in the heart of swamp country - well, okay, it's actually Opelousas which is actually a fairly large city now, but they did start out in Ville Platte, which is two stone's throw away from Chicot State Park, which is about as swampy as you get and still be near civilization. Anyway, the Saints are playing and Saints fans have got to be just this side of Cleveland Browns fans as far as raw deals go. On one hand, the Browns were actually good at one time waaaay back then. On the other hand, they never took to wearing paper bags over their heads. On the other hand, Saints fans have never actually lost their team. On yet another hand, Browns fans haven't almost lost their city. So, I'd say they're both about on the same level when it comes to how much it sucks to be a fan of their respective teams. Unfortunately for Browns fans, this year there's no real argument over who has it worse.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmIRyDPRhI/AAAAAAAAAB8/3V3X0u6cxeQ/s1600-h/paperbag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmIRyDPRhI/AAAAAAAAAB8/3V3X0u6cxeQ/s320/paperbag.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Saints fan or Mike Cogliandro? Hmm.</span> <br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>The Saints are at least guaranteed of a first round bye as I type this. If the Vikings lose tonight, they'll have home field all the way through the playoffs, which is pretty much what they need, 'cause Cleveland has actually been playing better than the Saints over the past few games, and the the secondary coach of the Saints needs to put in a shout for Scotty or Tochiro, 'cause I think that even though they're both fictional engineers that don't know squat about American football, the only way this bunch is going to get it together by the playoffs is either by magic or by having, as my old buddy Brian Sutton (aka Brian-O) used to say, "the writers on their side." <br />
<br />
Man, that was a long-ass meandering introduction for a post that really has nothing to do with football. I really need to work on this blogging thing.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm listening to this game and on comes this commercial for Bud Light that I know, I just KNOW I've heard before. Except the words are different. Way different, like something from a past lifetime. But I can swear this is what I hear:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bud Light Presents: Real Men of Genius</span><br />
<em><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Real men of genius!</span></em><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Today we salute you, Mr. Anime Videotape Wizard Guy</span><br />
<em><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Mr. Anime Videotape Wizard Guy!</span></em><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Knowing the future of anime fandom itself rests on your sweaty shoulders, you haul your ten pound mechanized war machine and multiple boxes of acetate ammo in and out of hotels and up and down flights of stairs, all for the joy of knowing some other guy five states away is going to enjoy his fourth generation copy of <em>Magical Idol Pastel Yumi</em>.</span><br />
<em><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">I think I threw my back out!</span></em><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Subsisting on nothing but Twinkies and expensive hotel soda, you sit in darkness at the back of a video room full of fanboys for hours at a time because no one, but no one, touches your equipment but you.</span><br />
<em><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Hands off the cartoons, fatboy!</span></em><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Your nights are spent in your hotel room at three am in the morning valiantly struggling with the hotel television set connections, while trying to explain to the drooling fan sitting crosslegged on the floor why you won't spend the next three hours editing out the three <em>Touch</em> episodes just so he can have a full six hours worth of <em>Gundam Double Zeta</em>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><em><span style="color: yellow;">You'll take what you get and like it!</span></em></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><em><span style="color: yellow;"></span></em> </span><span style="font-size: large;">So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, oh keeper of the holy cartoons, because when you finally pass out from exhaustion, you can rest well knowing that someone, somewhere, is taping over your hard work to make space for episodes of <em>Thundercats</em>.*</span><br />
<em><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Mr. Anime Videotape Wizard Guy!</span></em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmQ2C9AMKI/AAAAAAAAACE/V0BBGMHmeOg/s1600-h/snarf1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmQ2C9AMKI/AAAAAAAAACE/V0BBGMHmeOg/s320/snarf1.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Your anime fu is no match for my cuteness attack! All your female population are belonging to us!</span><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<br />
*Not meaning to pick on Thundercats here, but it's just what came to mind. One night I got this call at about midnight from a guy on the West Coast (he'd probably just forgotten about the time differencial between California and San Antonio - that kind of thing happened quite often and I tried my best to never take offense). He was desperate because a tape I'd made for him a couple months back had been taken by his sister and she taped Thundercats over it. He didn't seem nearly so upset that she took it as much as he did what she did with it. Anyway, turns out two episodes on the tape had already been scheduled for his local club meeting that weekend and he was wondering if I could recopy the tape and get it to him by then. That kind of thing happened regularly. The "please copy this in a hurry" part, not the Thundercats part. <br />
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<br />
At least I really hope that didn't happen regularly. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmTNM-3D4I/AAAAAAAAACM/Bc2vMQ5qSi4/s1600-h/puppy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzmTNM-3D4I/AAAAAAAAACM/Bc2vMQ5qSi4/s400/puppy.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"You are already dead to my kung fu. You just refuse to admit it"</span><br />
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</div></div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-52476119295408781262009-12-28T15:34:00.007-06:002010-01-10T14:03:30.281-06:00Beware! The Bones of Pharaoh will Take Your Life! Embrace The Power of the Pasties!T'was doing some surfing recently and came across the wiki entry for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A-Kon">Project A-Kon in Dallas</a> and I tried hard to remember if I was at the first or second one or both. I know I was at least one of those first two, nominally as a guest (because of the <a href="http://www.allykatt.com/harlock/harbgal1.htm">Captain Harlock</a> comic). Of course, back in those days, most of us in San Antonio anime fandom were treated as guests by the good folk up there 'cause that's just the way they rolled back then. We slept on couches, on the floor or wherever there was space, usually waking up a few times each night to change the videos that were being dubbed for this or that fan. Things probably haven't changed all that much since then, except for the dubbing thing, of course. Now I imagine all that work (if you can call it "work") gets done over Al Gore's marvelous invention...<br />
<br />
Anyway, that got me thinking about all the conventions I've been to. They all tend to run together, but a few stand out. If I can keep up my enthusiasm for this blogging thing, it'll certainly be a topic I'll come back to over and over again. <br />
<br />
Cause I basically <strong>loved</strong> going to conventions. Loved 'em. Even the old Larry Lankford conventions were a high point of my existence back during that third life. But the convention thing itself started during life number two and it had nothing to do with anime or manga. That was all comics and RPGs. <br />
<br />
I lived in Houston back during the late '70s. I want to say that, by population, Houston was either the fourth or fifth largest city in the US back then. And it had a total of <strong>three</strong>, count 'em, <span style="color: #cc0000;">three</span> comic book shops. And two of those were right across the street from one another on Bissonnet Road. Which was actually fine by me because that way I only had to take one bus there and one bus back. "Roy's Memory Shop" went out of buisiness a bit after, but "Third Planet" moved to a larger location and stayed open for quite a few years after I moved to San Antonio in '80. The third, "Camelot Comics" was downtown and a bitch to get to for a penniless kid like me, though I did manage to score about ten issues of the <em>New</em> <em>X-Men</em> starting with #94 from them a year or two before the prices shot through the roof because of...well, if you've ever been a real X-Men fan, you know the story. Never did manage to get the Giant-Sized origin issue, damn it. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkeY-aITVI/AAAAAAAAAA0/lzvRm7zFjjs/s1600-h/RoysMemoryShop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkeY-aITVI/AAAAAAAAAA0/lzvRm7zFjjs/s320/RoysMemoryShop.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
If you figure a city the size of Houston had only three comic book shops, you don't have to be a genius to come to the conclusion that conventions were few and far between. I can remember going to two while living there and the second of those wasn't even in a hotel. But that first one...<br />
<br />
...yeah, I can't even remember the name of the damned thing. But it was in an old hotel near the Medical Center, just south of downtown, near Rice University. The hotel had a lighting system that made the whole place look green after sundown, so I kinda want to say it was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock_Hotel">The Shamrock Hotel</a>, but I dunno. Anyway, it was my first real comic book convention, a real two-day affair, and I was fucking stoked. My plan (or at least the one I told my parents) was to hang out there Saturday, catch the last bus home, then get back there for Sunday. Yeah, like that worked, right?<br />
<br />
I get there early Saturday, stand in line with the rest of the sweaty people (this is, well, Houston), pay my money, get my badge and run quickly inside to scope out the best stuff my forty bucks would get me before all the other goofs got it all. Only problem was that, as it turned out, dealers trade with other dealers before the doors even open and there were so few dealers from out of town there that after looking around for about an hour, there was really nothing there I wanted that I couldn't get from the three shops in town. Man, talk about disappointing.<br />
<br />
But, hey, it got better. This was, as the kids now might say, a failsafe environment. The film room was scheduled to show <em>Barbarella</em> and <em>Flesh Gordon</em> that night. Big screen. 16mil. Followed by <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em>. The only drawback was all that teenaged fanboy bait was half a day away and, frankly, there wasn't a whole lot else going on. They had a dealer's room (I think maybe there were a total of ten retailers there, if that many) a gaming room that doubled as a panel room, and the film room. I don't even think they had any guests, or if they did, it wasn't anyone I was remotely interested in hearing or meeting. I had pretty much nothing to look forward to over the next couple of hours, except running across the street to Burger King to eat. Hey, I know what you're thinkin', but at my house back in the day, Whoppers were fine dining. <br />
<div align="right"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkiHjFRXEI/AAAAAAAAABE/BZ6Rm2uu690/s1600-h/imagesCAYUOPTS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkiHjFRXEI/AAAAAAAAABE/BZ6Rm2uu690/s320/imagesCAYUOPTS.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Teenaged Fanboy Heaven</span><br />
<br />
<div align="right"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkir-eeQSI/AAAAAAAAABM/imQIeuc-UTg/s1600-h/200px-Flesh_Gordon_(1974).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkir-eeQSI/AAAAAAAAABM/imQIeuc-UTg/s320/200px-Flesh_Gordon_(1974).jpg" /></a><br />
</div>So, I'm walking around what essentially is a three-room con and eventually I stumble into the gaming room, out of boredom more than anything else. Back then, they didn't sell tabletop gaming stuff in comic book shops. Hell, for the most part, they didn't sell gaming supplies anywhere but in gaming shops. In Houston, anyway. So I'd never seen a twenty-sided die, much less an eight-sided die or twelve-sided die, or the dreaded four-sided die. Do any of you actually remember ever trying to roll a four-sided die? I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to admit it either. I don't think it's actually possible to "roll" a four-sided die. It's basically a pyramid that you toss onto a table and, unlike the rest of the multi-faced dice some nerdboy invented to make money off <strike>suckers</strike> gamers, you read the number on the bottom. I swear, I actually paid good money for those damned things at one time. I can't believe I'm actually writing about this shit. I'd almost rather admit to all the times I paid money to get into Houston adult theaters, but that's just creepy, so I'll be pleased to be shutting up about it now.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzklqJpcchI/AAAAAAAAABU/cFodntIkwZc/s1600-h/foursided.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzklqJpcchI/AAAAAAAAABU/cFodntIkwZc/s320/foursided.jpg" /></a><br />
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<br />
<span style="color: red;">You tell me. WTF?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Anyway, this gaming room has four or five tables, but only two are being used at the moment. The loudest game in the room, AD&D, is being run by an extremely large, but exceedingly jovial man named Roger Lawter. Being the curious sort and always drawn towards the sound of people having loads o' fun, I hang around the table for a while. More fun. I look at my con schedule. Nothing interesting in the film room. More fun. The table takes a break and Roger looks up at me, smiles, and hands me his hardback copy of the AD&D Player's Handbook. I grab a nearby chair, sit down and after about five minutes, I'm grabbing a character sheet and rolling those silly dice. More fun. My wood elf makes five straight "secret door" checks, something Roger tells me has never happened before in one of his games. Now that I look back, I'm pretty sure he was lying, but it worked. The forty bucks I brought for comics ends up in the pocket of the only dealer selling gaming stuff and I end up sticking a Player's Handbook and a few other gaming essentials in my bag. Not to mention wasting a good deal of the next decade of my life. Thanks a fucking lot, Roger, wherever you are.<br />
<br />
I kid. I didn't have any friends my age back then, so it became my social life such as it was; and I don't regret any of it. Well, okay, maybe the four-sided die thing...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkm80uZwlI/AAAAAAAAABc/YQofdKT18W0/s1600-h/dnd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkm80uZwlI/AAAAAAAAABc/YQofdKT18W0/s320/dnd.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><span style="color: red;">God, I think I still have this somewhere. And, given that gamers are gamers, I put my name in it. Now, honestly, what's more embarrassing? To have this thing stolen or have your girlfriend find you put your name in it?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
In any case, Roger was one of those rare gamers who <span style="color: orange;">did</span> have a social life, which included going home to the wife, so he packed up just in time for me to run over and grab my seat for the opening credits of <em>Barbarella.</em> Now, for those of you who have seen it, the opening credits of the Roger Vadim camp classic are pretty much the main reason to see the film. Well, okay, the orgasmitron, excuse me, the "Ex-sex-sive Machine" scene was pretty cool also, but that's more something that appeals to the mind. Yeah.<br />
<br />
<div align="right" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkpd6VQzVI/AAAAAAAAABs/CUT953dEpeg/s1600-h/orgasmatron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/Szkpd6VQzVI/AAAAAAAAABs/CUT953dEpeg/s320/orgasmatron.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div align="right" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">"You know, you could get a vibrator for under ten bucks back in '68"</span><br />
</div><br />
Unfortunately, everyone else in the room knew about the whole "credits" thing too and the front rows were overflowing with sweaty fanboys, so I was relegated to somewhere in the middle of the room. Which wasn't actually all that bad because did I mention the film was an actual film? As in big picture projected against a large white screen? With pops and crackles and multiple reels so they had to actually stop the film in segments to reload the next reel? Yeah, I know, that sounds really primative, doesn't it? But it's all well worth it when Jane Fonda's boobies float around in front of you at several times their normal size.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkoYvClkVI/AAAAAAAAABk/FOMpnXEfbWQ/s1600-h/janefonda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzkoYvClkVI/AAAAAAAAABk/FOMpnXEfbWQ/s320/janefonda.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>I haven't seen the film in three decades, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't hold up all that well. Come to think of it, Jane's boobies probably haven't held up that well either. But man, they still do look smokin' hot when I close my eyes...oh, to be nineteen again.<br />
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<em>Flesh Gordon</em>, on the other hand, that just rocks. Still. You have your porn, then you have your porn, if you know what I mean, but <em>Flesh Gordon</em> is just in a class by itself. It just is. From the Sex Ray (now a staple among written porn fetishists) to the Penisaurus to the Great God Porno (whom the crew lovingly named "Nesuahyrrah" - Harryhausen spelled backwards), it's just great fun from beginning to end. Is it gay to admit that you once thought that having a pair of power pasties of your very own would be cool? I'm not sure, but I think that maybe my memory of this one is clouded by the fact that no one in the film room got carded. And there were kids far younger than me in that audience. Did I mention that I fucking love conventions?<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzksN5Re7pI/AAAAAAAAAB0/xQ9GqaC6dbQ/s1600-h/fleshgordon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzksN5Re7pI/AAAAAAAAAB0/xQ9GqaC6dbQ/s320/fleshgordon.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: red;">"Stand back! I have the power pasties and I know how to use them!</span><br />
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I'd never seen <em>2001</em> before that con, but I was looking forward to it. Or, so I kept telling myself. Unfortunately, between the understandable excitement of a kid at his first con, Jane Fonda's incredible boobies, the awesomeness of Flesh Gordon's influence on my tender adolescent libido and the fact that it was almost midnight, I fell asleep somewhere after the guy from <em>The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin</em> shows up and didn't wake back up until HAL had killed everyone off. Needless to say, I didn't catch a bus home. Lucky for me, the dudes who ran security were pretty cool. Or maybe they were just used to it. There were at least five other guys in the same predicament (except I have a feeling that at least two of them were stoned out of their minds). Come to think of it, the security guys weren't all there either, if you know what I mean. The smell was pretty strong. Ah, yes, the seventies...<br />
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Maybe I got a bit of a contact high, because I don't remember much of what went on Sunday. I know Roger showed back up and I cracked open my AD&D book and played some more. Spent the last of my money on more gaming crap I probably never used after that - though the little miniature pewter elf <span style="color: red;">was</span> a better representation of my character than the grey-and-white speckled twelve-sided die I'd used the day before. Fuck, I still can't believe I'm writing this shit down. <br />
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Oh, well, I guess your first convention is kind of like your first lay. Well, okay, maybe not. If I had to write about my first lay, it'd take up half the space. <br />
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And, to this day, I've still not seen 2001 all the way through.<br />
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</div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This isn't from the con I attended, but you get the general idea. For more pics and stuff from other Houston Cons, <a href="http://netdevelopment.net/conventions/index.html">this</a> is a great website.<br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-39728569865831264182009-12-28T07:07:00.070-06:002009-12-28T11:08:00.885-06:00My Charles Jones Bunny is Deadly to Your Funny Bone! Die, Duck, Die!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzioCgA06lI/AAAAAAAAAAc/dT3_gUsW8X0/s1600-h/0513_nixon_cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HUTeZEpDdWY/SzioCgA06lI/AAAAAAAAAAc/dT3_gUsW8X0/s320/0513_nixon_cartoon.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I grew up watching cartoons during the Nixon era. <br />
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I grew up watching cartoons. Didn't make a whole lot of distinction between where they came from. The only thing I cared about was whether or not they were funny. I didn't like unfunny cartoons. I don't think I was a whole lot different from most younger children in that way. Kids like me are the reason that <em>Scooby-Do</em> had dumb chase scenes and Casey Kasem is still making a living saying crap like "Zoinks!" at the ripe old age of ninety. <br />
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Strange thing is, even as a kid, I never exactly knew what I was going to find funny. <em>The Banana Splits</em> were funny in a way that <em>The Monkeys</em> weren't. I think I can safely say I was in the definite minority there. I pretty much found cartoon violence funny. Almost always. When Bugs talked Elmer into shooting Daffy it was funny. When Daffy talked Elmer into shooting <strong>Daffy</strong>, it was funny. When Daffy talked Elmer into shooting Daffy for the second time, it was funny. When Daffy talked Elmer into shooting him for the <strong>third</strong> time, it's just fucking cartoon nirvana.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">If you don't find this shit funny, this isn't the blog for you.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">I watched this stuff growing up every morning. Looney Tunes were sprinkled liberally on the local network channels along with episodes of Captain Kangaroo and locally produced children's programming. Seeing ping-pong balls raining down on the good Captain was snicker funny, but couldn't touch the charred face of Daffy Duck as he explained to Bugs that Elmer was "still lurking about" and that he wouldn't go back up to re-check. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUMo29iGsU">"No more for me, I'm driving."</a> Chuck Jones was my God even back then, though I didn't know his name.<br />
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This was the early '70s. But by the time the decade ended, the Tunes got their balls cut off, "7-Zark-7" subbed for death, destruction and mayhem in <em>Battle of the Planets</em>, and even the producers of <em>Star Blazers</em> were dubbing in dialogue like "Good thing he made it out alive" to cover the death of characters. What changed, exactly? And when? And how the hell did I miss it?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">"Should I blow up now, or wait 'till I get home?"<br />
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</div>RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8741923639271293979.post-7330409248776826002009-12-28T01:59:00.009-06:002009-12-28T02:11:06.291-06:00The Bloody Boot of Apathy Will Not Step on the Righteous Soul! Witness the Fatal Rebirth! <br />
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</div>Well, hmm, this blog stuff if tougher than I thought. Maybe tomorrow...RWGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07878867424268622656noreply@blogger.com0