As always, we appreciate the feedback! Most of it was positive, and hearing from our readers is a great motivator for us to continue this effort.
However, we'd like to remind our readers that EX is not affiliated with any anime company or store. As a result, we cannot respond to inquiries or requests to purchase items. If you are looking for a specific item, please try checking the selection of stores listed on the Anime Web Turnpike's Shopping Guide, many of which do mail order.
And now, on to the mail...

From: From: Janet Gauntt (JLGauntt@aol.com) Dear EX Staff, The first I read your magazine several months ago. I thought wow! good job... they'll never be able to sustain it though. I figured it was just another flash in the 'net web page. But you just keeping delivering, don't you? Great issue this month. I especially enjoyed the editorial on one of my personal favorites KNT GATCHAMAN (dare da, indeed :) and found the technical articles by Frazier and Ho quite interesting. (And after reading the reviews, I would really like to figure out where I can get my hands on a copy of KOMOREBI NO MOTO DE...) Besides the blatant, fawning appreciation of your magazine, I was actually writing to give you a tidbit on a series you might want to review if you're looking for stuff that is somewhat inspired by anime. This would be the French produced animated series NIGHTHOOD (the English dub - which starts off awful but fortunately gets better - is showing only in Canada on YTV as far as I know). This is a show focused on the adventures of a character most of us (North) Americans would know only from anime - Arsene Lupin. It doesn't really try for an anime look per se (in the 'look' , I would say it's more influenced by the movie Citizen Kane than anything else); but you can definitely see the anime influences. Can't give you any more info than that as I've only watched it 10 or so episodes of it, not researched it. Janet, You'd be surprised how far a little blatant fawning appreciation will go. Komorebi no Moto de should be available at your local Japanese bookstore (if you are lucky enough to have one where you live). If not, I can only suggest that you contact one of the anime mail order places that handle books. Thanks for the information on this series. I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere and take a look for myself. From: James Harris (mmedley@bgnet.bgsu.edu) Well what can I say? The new issue was great. I'm still drooling from the MACROSS VF-X article and the GATCHAMAN editorial had me laughing out loud. I noticed one release one your CD list that was absent, The New 1997 SAINT SEIYA Memorial Album. It came out one the 21st of January and it is a pretty important CD as it will determine whether or not Toei/Bandai will bankroll a new SEIYA TV/OVA series to animate the final story. But then again getting the information you do must take tons of work so I shouldn't be so critical. [Hey, I'm a long time SAINT SEIYA fan, what can I say!!] James, I've received a lot of e-mail that said the GATCHAMAN editorial has struck a chord with them; I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the humor (and the absurdity) in this situation. The staff member who collects our Japanese release information apologizes for leaving out the SAINT SEIYA CD, but it wasn't in any of his source materials. (And even if it was, those release lists have such tiny print, I couldn't blame him if he missed it). From: Henry Lee (ranma@prodigy.net) Hello, I am an anime fan that happens to be obsessed with the Internet as well. I stumbled on to your page when you were by issue 3 or so, and knowing the scarcity of anime magazines decided to look it over. I was and am still impressed by the overall quality of your page. It's good to know there's an anime magazine out there with excellent information for free. Keep up the good work! Ok, now to the real heart of my letter. Having got into anime about two years ago, I've searched for more and more anime (You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find anime stores in Florida), and have matured somewhat in tastes. But there are still a few areas that are blurry to me. First, how exactly does a company decide which series to buy and distribute in America? I mean, extremely good series are being released right now (RANMA, EVANGELION, BLUE SEED, DRAGONBALL), but there are so many other good series in Japan (ESCAFLOWNE, DNA2, MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH). I can understand if the title is a big one and is too expensive (GUNDAM), but the series I've mentioned are moderately sized. Could you explain how companies "grab" a series for distribution? My next question is somewhat related. When a company does get a series, does it get the entire name or just that season? For example, AD Vision got the rights to BLUE SEED. I heard in Japan though, that they have released a second OVA series, BLUE SEED 2. Does AD Vision automatically get the rights to that as well? I'm asking this because I heard Gainax is re-releasing the last two EVANGELION episodes, and I would like to have those and the original for comparison. Finally, how do we go about e-mailing reviews and such? Henry, We get a fair amount of mail asking many of the questions that you have asked about the American anime industry. And leave it to RIAP's Chad Kime to take up the banner and try to address them in this issue's RIAP Writes! For inspiring Chad to not only write a very lengthy column but also to get it in early, I am pleased to inform you that you're one of this month's letter contest winners. As for submitting articles to EX, you can e-mail me directly with your questions at phoenix@apricot.com. The submissions policy was printed in the letter column a couple issues ago. From: Clemson L. Mayfield (mayfield@fld94.alsnet.peachnet.edu) I recently discovered how much better japanimation was than american animation, and I wanted to know if there is a place in which I can learn to draw japanimation and if there is an american channel that airs a healthy amount of japanimation. PS: What is "manga"? Clemson, I'll do the easy question first. "Manga" is Japanese for "comics," but it also reflects comics drawn in the Japanese style—including RANMA 1/2, GUNSMITH CATS, and the like. You will find that many U.S. comic artists say that they draw in a Īmanga' style, but that's not really accurate; it's more accurate to say that they incorporate elements of manga style into their own style. Unfortunately, the only places that I know of for learning how to draw anime are the animation schools in Japan. You may want to investigate getting a copy of the book Drawing Anime, but I can't say how useful it will be to you if you don't read Japanese. And finally, there is no american channel or network that broadcasts a large amount of Japanese animation. But you can find the Japanese megahit DRAGONBALL Z being syndicated in the U.S. Also, the Sci-Fi channel runs an anime feature every Saturday morning during their "Saturday Anime." But there isn't much else. Your best bet would be to find a good video store with a large anime/foreign film section. From: Roberto Arboleda (rarboled@gye.satnet.net) Hi there, By my name you should be guessing now that I'm a latino boy... well, yep. I live in a little country called Ecuador (The middle of the world) in South America, and I've been an anime fan since the appearance of MAZINGER Z. After all this years, I've been exposed to several anime series (I'm witness of the multiple personalities of the characters from G-FORCE) and some videos bought in the US. The last 6 months have been very productive for my anime-addiction: I keep accessing the Web all the time searching for everything regarding my favorite series and movies. In one of my explorations in the Internet World, I could notice a great difference between the Sailor Moon series released in the US and the ones transmitted in Latin America: You people can watch the SAILOR MOON R series too! At first I was a little angry because I'd watch the Scouts die and resurrect and nothing else... I didn't knew by the time but I was really lucky! Even though I could watch only one season, it has your Two-Seasons value! Why? The episodes are uncensored! Yes people, I can watch everyday complete uncut episodes of one of the best anime series ever released in America. I really hope that the Mexican company that dubbed the series will be signing a few more contracts to bring us latin-fans the rest of the series. Ja ne! Roberto, I continue to be amazed at the number of people in South America who read EX and send us mail. Nearly every anime series that airs on U.S. television is "adapted" in some way. For example, the reason for the presence of the irritating R2D2 knock-off 7-Zark-7 in BATTLE OF THE PLANETS was because much of the more violent footage (earthquakes, explosions, people being killed) had to be edited out for U.S. television. And that with the current pressure from the government and special interest groups, this is not likely to change in the near future. Of course, another reason for editing episodes together for Sailor Moon was to meet the syndication minimum required. Still, it seems that you had a distinct advantage over U.S. SAILOR MOON viewers.

VF-X Poster Winners!

"Ahh... I see it now... excuse me while I go slap my forehead against a brick wall... (whap)"

"Well, it took me a while but I think I've finally figured it out. The problem is that the VF-22 just behind the lead plane is missing its right angled tail fin (no doubt to keep from obscuring that teeny-tiny VF-11 in the background)."

There we have it, folks. The correct answer is: A missing tailfin on the VF-22! One reader even submitted the following image with the fin painted in to point out the error.

Out of 80 entries, we received 19 correct responses from the following people:

Thomas Heaton (koupwassu@olg.com) Brian Lee (cynic@uclink4.berkeley.edu) Lersak (lersak@ksc11.th.com) Francis Lee (F2LEE@ARTSU1.Watstar.UWaterloo.CA) Ulysses J. Chen (ujc8a@virginia.edu) James Wong (decker@earthlink.net) Jason Guerin (jg9@evansville.edu) Byron Iida (n9245554@janice.cc.wwu.edu) Alexander Long Vuong Nguyen (alexandn@ea.oac.uci.edu) Jong Man Hwang (xtian@exo.com) Betty (anitang@aicom.com) Mike Dometita (Flipflopp@msn.com) R. Lowe (rlowe@callisto.uwinnipeg.ca) Lance Webster (lghtning@oro.net) Ken Brennan (valkyrie@megsinet.net) panpower@geocities.com ByteMeDK@aol.com walkerf@db.erau.edu oho@ucla.edu

And the two lucky winners of the posters are...

Mike Dometita (Flipflopp@msn.com) Ulysses J. Chen (ujc8a@virginia.edu)

Congratulations! Please email us with your snail-mail addresses and we'll have the posters in the mail! And thanks to everyone else who participated!

PS: In case you were wondering, we didn't build that "error" in; as stated by one reader above, it was cut to prevent obscuring the VF-11 in the background. The same "error" exists in a similar version of the poster included in the Macross 15th Anniversary Calendar as well (the game cover's final release version retains the VF-22's tailfin and arranges the fighters in a different formation). Amazingly enough, most people never even noticed until they were asked to find it...

Letter Contest

Keep that e-mail coming. We still have a lot of DRAGONBALL Z cards to give away! These cards were donated by Books Nippan and are special hologram cards mounted on a cardboard backing. These cards are unavailable for purchase in the United States, so these are truly unique items.
Keep in mind that "best" is a subjective thing, and totally subject to the whims of the Editors. Flattery will not necessarily make you a winner. I can't give you specifics as to what will make you a winner, but I can share with you the sure-fire ways to get disqualified:

• WRITE IN UPPER CASE. This will guarantee immediate rejection.
  
• fail to use capital letters at the start of sentences or when using words like ranma and macross.
  
• Use inane words and phrases such as 'Ranma sucks' or 'Robotech rocks'.
  
• Use punctuation in an inappropriate and outlandish fashion !!!!??????
  
• one-liners such as "Your mag rocks, gimme the cards!" will be disqualified immediately.
  
• Profanity and personal attacks will also wind up in the trashcan.

Our Mail Policy:

We read all of the mail we receive. Readers who submit mail may receive personal replies via e-mail, a reply in the letter column, or in some instances, both.
All letters sent to EX (or any of its staff regarding the magazine) are eligible for inclusion in the letter column. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity. If you don't want your e-mail address printed, please tell us. If you would prefer that your letter not be published at all, please inform us of this as well.