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Anime Con in US:

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Always ready to oblige

ADV Films presents THE BEST OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ANIMATION
FROM JAPAN, a SIX HOUR festival that features screenings of their
current anime releases, as well as several Premieres.

The screenings take place at the LOS ANGELES COMIC BOOK AND SCIENCE
FICTION CONVENTION on SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 1999. Films start at 11:00
a.m. Some of the films being screened include the Premieres of SAKURA
WARS, SORCERER HUNTERS VOLUME TWO, THOSE WHO HUNT ELVES, and ADVENTURES
OF KOTETSU.

TEKKEN, POWER DOLLS, and SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE will also be shown.
Posters, T-Shirts, and Videos will be given away free thorughout the
day, courtesy of ADV Films.

The Convention is located at the SHRINE AUDITORIUM EXPO CENTER, 700
WEST 32nd STREET, in LOS ANGELES, right across the street from USC
College, and near the 110 freeway. Convention hours are 10:00 a.m. -
5:00 p.m. Admission is only $7.00 for the entire day.

There is also a Dealer's Room Full of Anime merchandise, Old and New
Comic Books, Character Toys, Movie Memorabilia, Beanie Babies, Star
Wars and Star Trek Toys, Trading Cards, and much more. Call (818)
954-8432 for information.

Minami Con Report

Arrived about 20.30 on the Friday after a dismal car journey. Went straight to Video Room 1 which I could find without needing to register.
Gatchaman OVA 3 Fine piece of old hokum with Gatchaman and the Science Ninja Team. It looks rather '70's in style but I looked it up and it seems this was made in 1995.
Slayers Great. A Slayers OVA in which the sorceresses Lina Inverse (the small, rather flat-chested one) and Naga (the bigger one with huge boobs) are involved with a pair of golem builders who make a pair of golems resembling the pair, except that the Lina one is super-deformed. Much silliness ensues. Better to stay with the TV series.
Adieu Galaxy Express 999 Second movie follow-up to the old TV series, not as good as the previous one but still filled with wonderful romantic imagery, and with cameo appearances of Captain Harlock and Esmeralda.
I'll make a habit of it TV series about a girl, idol singer and heir to a martial arts dojo, who goes to school dressed as a boy to escape the attentions of her fans. There is some fighting, and also a lot of deliciously naughty cross-gender and gay humour.
Slayers Try Apparently a follow-up TV series, it opens with the barrier that isolated their lands for centuries having disappeared. An expedition is mounted, and starts to go wrong right away. Funny and vigorously plotted - and it didn't have Naga in it.
Lost Universe. (TV) Rather hard to lose a universe, you might think. (don't ask). Anyway, this is a light-hearted space adventure, with the principal characters being freelance adventurers, and it does have a Lost Ship, that's a ship that belonged to a lost interstellar civilisation.
Ja Ja Uma Quartet My note says "Cards and Chess!" Perhaps you should be warned by the problem I'm having in remembering what this was about. I think there are four girls in it, each with different super-powers.
Akachan to Boku (TV) It's always a pleasure to find an anime that's a bit different, as this one "Aka-chan and Me" is. The young hero's mother is killed in a road accident, and his father has to work and (typical salaryman) be away for long hours. Though he is still an elementary schoolboy, he is left to struggle alone with the task of looking after his baby brother. The toddler yells continually and disrupts his homework. That's about it, pure domestic drama.
Berserk (TV) Realistic battle adventure, about a man recruited into a band of hard-bitten irregular soldiers by their charismatic leader. If you like RPG's or medaeval warfare stuff, this is for you.
Brain Powerd (sic). An alien spacecraft, Orphan, lies at the bottom of the Pacific ocean, causing destruction through earthquakes, and sending out "Plates" which give birth to organic robots. The robots come in two varieties, the eccentrically named "Grand Cher" and "Brain Powerd". The former are piloted by humans serving Orphan, the others, er, aren't. The characterisation in this series is quite good, but this is yet another series about young people playing at piloting giant robots.
Serial Experiments Lain (TV) Lain, a shy and withdrawn girl of about 14, is given a computer by her father, which connects to a network called "wired". Lain, taken to a club by her schoolfriends, sees a man shoot himself. She receives a computer chip, and learns that this is an enhancement to her terminal. Lain's personality changes. Several youths who have been playing a computer game on wired have panic attacks and kill themselves. Men wearing electronic goggles watch Lain's house. This is a surreal and quite disturbing series, as exemplified by the scene where the childlike Lain, in her underwear, works on a dismantled computer unit, surrounded by cables and ISDN boxes that now take up much of the room. This series is a must-see, but don't blame me if it does bad things to your head.
Cowboy Bebop A realistically styled science fiction series, set in a time when space travel is commonplace. There is much criminal activity, giving plenty of scope for bounty hunters. The heroes of the story are a pair of hard-up bounty hunters who have a spacecraft called the "Bebop". One of the episodes I saw was not much to do with space or the future at all, as it involved the characters in chasing a genetically modified dog around the streets. There is also a rather good jazz'n' blues soundtrack.
Perfect Blue This is a most unusual anime, as it was apparently made by shooting live-action and then processing the result to look like animation. It's also an adaptation of a mainstream novel, which is also quite unusual. Mina, an idol singer, from a none too successful three-girl group, Cham, quits the group under pressure from her management, who think she would make more money as an actress, and lands a minor role in a TV series. Her former fans are not pleased, and as her TV role and public image become sleazier, she finds that she is the target of a stalker. This is a gripping drama that gives some insights into the Japanese entertainment industry. A must-see. There will be a cinema release soon from Manga Video, with a video release late in 1999.
Weiss Kreuz (TV) I recollect that this has attracted some fan attention recently, but I have to say that I'm struggling to remember anything about the episodes I saw. Steam Detectives (TV) An adaptation of the manga series by Kia Asamiya, it has a retro setting, looking like about 50 years ago, and with clunky steam powered robots used by both police and criminals. Detective Narutaki and pretty nurse Ling-Ling fight evil. Not bad.
Magical Stage Fancy Lala (TV) About Miho, a nine-year old wannabe manga artist who finds a magic pen and pad. Whatever clothes she draws with the pen become real, and she also changes to fit them. Soon she decides to become an idol singer, a sixteen year old idol singer, that is. A charming series, with quite well observed scenes from Japanese daily life. In one episode, older-Miho attends an audition while almost simultaneously taking part in a rather tacky its-a-knockout style sports competition as herself. Recommended.
Yawara (TV) Amusing series about the somewhat reluctant judo heroine and her obsessive grandfather, who coaches her. One of the great sports anime.
Nadesico Movie I shouldn't say anything about this as I struggled to stay awake and then walked out.
Non-Anime itemsThe Masquerade was amusing but didn't have anything great in it, and the Auction was one of the shortest I've ever attended at about 20 mins. In the Art Show there was a great painting of Rei from Evangelion, seeming to sum up the appeal of this series.

Shinnenkai reminder

>... with The Shin and Kai Con (Shinnenkai '99) and we're at
>http://www.newmoon.ndirect.co.uk/shinnenkai
>I hope we can count on you!
>And please let all the fanzines out there know that we have a way for them to get >in FREE!
>e-mail=shinnenkai@new-moon.demon.co.uk

Mangamax (formerly Mangamania)

I've seen the relaunched magazine, now edited by Jonathan Clements and backed by Titan, and (in my opinion) it's a great improvement on what it was before. No manga strips, not so much about Oriental live action, lots of cool stuff about anime & manga. It has colour inside and is starting to look a little bit like, say, Animage.

Pioneer

They are releasing "Final Fantasy Vol 1" and "Final Fantasy Vol 2" on 8th Feb. Both are RPG-related anime, 60 mins, Ł12.99 each, cert PG. I doubt that these are the same thing as "Final Fantasy IV" which I have seen, (and which was a lot of fun) but they may be related.

Hardware

UK fans note: I saw in an advert for the Lidl discount store that they are offering a stereo NICAM NTSC-playback VCR for Ł139 and a 28" TV for about Ł220. Just what young anime fans need.
Also, Eutelsat have this week brought their new Hotbird 5 satellite into position. Not a lot to do with anime, you might think, but it means that to explore the many free-to-air channels at the Eutelsat 13 deg. E position, including several with anime shows, you are now unlikely to need a dish bigger than that used by the million for Astra.

Pioneer releases (UK)

Record of Lodoss Warvols 4,5,6, all 55 mins, cert 12 or PG, Ł12.99.
More of the fine swords & sorcery series (not made by Pioneer).

Aya-Con UK news

The convention, by a new con-running team, was held in the Grand Hotel (venue of several Con-T cons) in the centre of Birmingham. By the time the closing ceremony arrived, it was judged a success. The video program contained a larger than usual proportion of new and unfamiliar items. Your editor managed to see the following videos:
Kingyo Chui Hou. I can't remember a single fact about this, which I apparently saw. Is this significant?
Voogies Angel An undersea war story, featuring alien invaders, and several scantily clad babes with battle skills. It's a comedy.
Battle Atheletess 1 (sic.) The scenario is that girls are being trained in athletic and other skills. In this episode they have to compete in a foot-race, dragging huge rollers behind them, and negotiating such obstacles as a cliff, a pit, a minefield, and gamesmanship by other competitors. It's supposed to be selection for a space academy. It's quite funny, but nothing exceptional.
Virus Buster Serge. An intriguing action thriller in which a team of special agents has to combat a series of "virus" infections. It's not clear whether the virus is biological, cybernetic, or both, but it produces some ugly monsters and causes a lot of trouble.
Saint Seiya Movie 1 This is from an old series, in which the "Saints", vaguely based on Greek mythology, battle against evil and keep coming back to win after being almost defeated.
Hana Yori Dango The title, one of those Japanese punning titles, means something like "Boys before Flowers". The heroine, a fairly ordinary girl from a humble family, is sent by her parents to a high school where the other students are from wealthy and snobbish families. (One of the main characters is heir to a large corporation and has a motor yacht the size of a small cruise liner!) The parents hope to get rich by marrying their daughter well. To begin with, she is quite severely bullied, gets rubbish thrown over her, chased by youths with brooms, etc. Later, the action is more mixed, with some romantic entanglements. This is an attractively designed series, and (unless you count the aspirational lifestyles) contains no fantasy. An excellent series, and if you want to know more, search the Net for sites.
Door to Summer Not to be confused with two other anime that have "Summer" or "Door" in their titles, this is a shoujo anime of a most romantic type, featuring beautiful youths, a naive girl, an experienced woman, and a period European location. Includes much overheated emotion.
Detective Boy Conan: About a detective who by a mishap with a dangerous poison, is shrunk into a boy of about twelve while retaining his adult detection powers. His name "Conan Edogawa" contains the names of two famous detective story writers, one English, one Japanese. (Some of Edogawa Rampo's stories have been animated in the "Animated Classics of Japanese Literature" series.) The episodes feature detective puzzles rather than violent action.
Future Boy Conan: About a boy superhero growing up on an isolated island. A girl is washed ashore, and some bad guys in an aircraft came to get her. It was (I think) directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is certainly rather reminiscent of Laputa.
Hime-Chan no Ribon: reviewed for an earlier Con; a charming magical-girl series.
Childs Toy TV: already reviewed.
I'll Make a Habit of It: Comedy series with martial arts, gender confusion, gay jokes and school.
Neighbourhood Stories: Another romantic drama series, again with no fantasy content, and set in a typical Japanese urban neighbourhood. Two childhood friends have grown up but are too used to each other to fall in love. The boy gets involved with a troubled but popular girl, who is amusingly nicknamed nice-body-ko. The animation style is quite unusual, and obviously derived from a manga. Recommended.
Berserk: Can't remember a lot about this all-action series.
Rorouni Kenshin: Both the movie and some TV episodes were shown. Rorouni Kenshin is set in the early Meiji Restoration period, a time of rapid change, and confused aims and loyalties, when the last battles on Japanese soil were fought. It follows the fortunes of several key characters, mostly samurai warriors, who have plenty of opportunity to use their sword skills. There is some historical meat, leavened with the usual fantasy exaggeration of the battles. The TV series is at least 60 episodes long, and hence some of the action is very drawn out, with conflicts seeming to last longer on screen than they would in life. An intriguing series, reportedly popular at the London Anime Club screenings.
Card Captor Sakura: Not to be confused with another series with "Sakura" in the title. Sakura is a small girl who captures cards of a tarot-like set, the cards having magical powers. When not dealt with, the cards behave mischievously. "Wood" for instance combines with "Rain" to produce a fast-growing tree that rapidly takes over her house. Sakura has to use her magical powers to quell the cards and then captures them by writing her name on them. She's cute.
Vampire Hunter: Can't remember a lot about this one.
Dominoes (live-action). Nearly an hour of dominoes falling over, some just in snaking rows, others making pictures or setting off special effects. The camera periodically switches to the creators of each section, who cheer when their piece works (or sob when it stalls). Weird.
Japanese Girl Wrestling: This has to be seen to be believed. Forget about sumo, this is more like British show wrestling, only with fewer rules. In the version with rules, they fall out of the ring and hit each other with folding chairs. Bizarre.

Pioneer UK releases

Record of Lodoss War vol.3, 52m, cert. 12, Ł12.99 (5 Oct.)
Iria/Zeiram vol.3, 58m, vol.3, cert.12, Ł12.99 (5 Oct.)
If you start collecting either you are unlikely to be disappointed. Each tape is 2 episodes.

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli/Disney have re-released a lot of their masterpieces as "Ghibli Collection", so you can now get, for example, "Majo no Takkyubin" (="Kiki") for a very reasonable Y4500, that's now about Ł20 or $30. So far as I can make out they're all this price, even Mononoke Hime. Of course, if you have to buy an import copy you may be charged twice as much.

News from Japan

Here's a "brief" rundown of the new season of shows starting at the beginning of October. I made this because if I didn't, I'd never figure them all out!! Gotta keep on top of these things...

Three things to keep in mind:

1) Since I'm working off of the pre-release information in the October magazines, keep in mind that any translations of mine may be superceded by "official" English titles, character names, etc.

2) The trend continues: as with last April's season of new anime shows, many this season are shown in late-night slots, and many in Tokyo only. This has two effects: the late-night shows invariably have their schedules shifted a random amount by baseball games earlier in the day, effectively making them impossible to tape, and the ones not shown here in Osaka are...well, impossible to tape. (: But...

3) Everything comes out on video in 3 months anyway.

Newly born:
"Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou" (fairly loose translation: "Boyfriend Girlfriend Situation") (begins 1998.10.2 Friday, 6:30pm)
The New Show by Gainax, now that Evangelion fever has at long last ended. Based on a comic by Tsuda Masami running in 'Lala', it appears to be a youth-and-highschool story, but that's about all I know. Of course, it doesn't matter what it's about: anything by Gainax is worth a look. According to the October issue of 'Looker' (the reborn Anime V), no fewer than 8,257 people auditioned this summer for the parts in the series.

"Gasaraki" (loose translation: "Gasaraki" :)
(begins 1998.10.4 Sunday, 9:30am [WHAT are they thinking with this timeslot?! This is right after Bee Fighter and Gingaman and RoboTack!]) The New Show by Takahashi Ryousuke, creator/director of Votoms, Dougram, Galiant, and Layzner (he did Samurai Troopers too...) This is the first robot show he's created since Layzner back in 1985-6, so expectations run high. (And hopefully this time it won't get cancelled halfway through its run.) Mecha designs are by Izubuchi Yutaka, who brought us the mecha in Patlabor and..and...and a bunch of other stuff! (If I said he did the character designs on Flashman, no-one'd know what I was talking about, would they...)

"Majutsu-shi Ohfin" (loose translation: "Magic-User Orphin") (begins 1998.10.3 Saturday, 5:00pm [an hour before Ultraman Gaia) Based on the series of novels by Akita Sadanobu titled "Majutsu-shi Ohfin Hagure-Tabi" [loose translation: "Magic-User Orphin Solitary Travels"].

"Kaiketsu Jouki Tantei-dan" (very loose translation: "The Amazing Steam Detectives")
(begins 1998.10.7 Wednesday, 6pm [Silent Mobius' old timeslot]) Based on the comic by Asamiya Kia (Silent Mobius) running in 'Ultra Jump'. Once again going for that Giant Robo retro-tech look.

"Jenereetaa Gauru" (apparent translation: "Generator Gawl")
(begins 1998.10.6/7 Tuesday night/Wednesday morning,2:55am. Apparently a total of 12 episodes planned. But Tokyo only...)
Fightin' heroes show, in the vein of the new Reideen. Looks like they're aiming for the yaoi crowd...

"Masutaa Kiiton" (official translation: "Master Keaton")
(late-night, so the schedule is likely to vary)
>From the comic that ran for six years in 'Big Comic Original' by Katsushika Hokusei(sp?) and Umezawa Naoki (creator of 'Yawara!').

There's one new segment starting in the anthology show "Anime Kompurekkusu"/"Anime Complex":
"Kurogane Komyunikeeshon" (loose translation: "Iron Communication") (begins in the A.C. episode airing 1998.10.5 Monday, 7:00pm on Wowow, a satellite channel)
Described as "Heartwarming SF"... Currently running as a comic in 'Dengeki Daioh'

"Suupaa Dooru * Rika-chan" (inevitable translation: "Super Doll * Rika-chan")
(begins 1998.10.6 Tuesday, 6:30pm) Well it's...Rika-chan...the doll.

"Niji no Senki Irisu" (approximate translation: "Rainbow War Chronicle Iris")
(begins 1998.10.2 Friday, 6:30pm)
Hey Japan's not the only country allowed to make anime - this one's from South Korea!

Back from the dead:
"Baburugamu Kuraishisu: Tokyo2040"/"Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo2040"
(begins 1998.10.7/8 Wednesday night/Thursday morning, 1:35am, but only on TV Tokyo, so there.)
I have no idea why they'd bring this back, it's been completely forgotten over here... And as a TV series no less. But then again Gall Force came back on video...

"Seibaa Marionetto J to X"/"Saber Marionette J to X"
(begins 1998.10.6 Tuesday, 6pm)
The sequel to the Saber Marionette J TV series, which was an almost-remake of the original Saber Marionette OVA. Well you gotta keep a certain percentage of Hayashibara Megumi shows on the air somehow, and after all Lost Universe is ending...

"Kaubooi Bibappu"/"Cowboy Bebop"
(begins [again] 1998.10.23 Friday nights/Saturday mornings, 1:00am) Cowboy Bebop originally began its broadcast run last April at 5:00pm on Fridays, but due to 'content problems' found itself gutted by the editor's knife. Now it gets another chance, this time a) in a late-night timeslot, and b) on Wowow. All 26 episodes will be shown uncut. This is a solidly-made show, and well worth watching just for the Kanno Youko soundtrack.

Dead but coming back soon:
There's one reborn segment in the anthology show "Anime Kompurekkusu"/"Anime Complex":
"Andoroido Ana MAICO 2010" (loose translation: "Android Announcer MAICO 2010")
is "ending" and being "replaced" with:
"Yorinuki no Andoroido Ana MAICO" (loose translation: "The Selected Android Announcer MAICO") (possibly begins in the A.C. episode airing 1998.10.5 Monday, 7:00pm on Wowow, a satellite channel)

"Akihabara Dennnou-Gumi"/"Akihabara Electric-brain Club"(?!) (Broadcast ends this month, but a theatrical movie is in the works)

"Iito Man '98"/"Eat-Man '98"
(late-night, so the schedule is likely to vary) Cleverly titled sequel to a previous late-night anime series, "Eat-Man".

Just dead:

"Lodoss-tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den"/"Lodoss War: Legend of the Hero Knight"--(correction)
"Rurou Ni Kenshin"/[please don't make me translate this...], ending after almost three years on the air.

"Rosuto Yunibaasu"/"Lost Universe", after a 6-month run.
"Chou Majin Eiyuu-Den Wataru"/"Super Magic-God Hero Legend Wataru" (6 months)

Two segments of the anthology show Anime Complex are ending:
"Nankai Kiou Neo Ranga"/"South Sea Strange Emperor Neo Ranga"
"Andoroido Ana MAICO 2010"/"Android Announcer MAICO 2010"

Alive! Shows entering their second 6 month stint (in Japanese that's called a "kuuru" [cool?]) include:

"Bren Pawaado"/"Brain Powered", original robot show by the creator of Gundam, running on the satellite channel Wowow (scrambed). I've rented the first tape and it looks to be well thought-out.
"Kaado Kyaputaa Sakura"/"Card Captor Sakura"
"Anime Kompurekkusu"/"Anime Complex" An anthology series, with three 20-minute sub-series running each week.
One segment of the anthology show "Anime Kompurekkusu"/"Anime Complex" is continuing:
"Aa Megami-sama: Chitchaitte tte koto wa Benri da ne!"/"Oh My Goddess: It's Convenient Being Small" [or whatever they officially translate it as...]
Concerning "Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou" (fairly loose translation: "Boyfriend Girlfriend Situation")
Watched the first episode. Without giving away any of the plot (Ha!) here's what it's like:
Take all the bits of Evangelion that fit the following categories:
Gainax
Deep poking around inside the protagonist's mind
High-speed text appearing on screen
High-school life
Weird camera angles
Good script
Weird editing
Good acting
Humor
Scenes where you say "hey you should be animating that"

Remove the following:
Robots
World in danger
Bodies floating in semi-organic fluid
Weapons
Blood splattered on the walls
Shinji

...and you have Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou.

Time to break out the videotapes.... ^^;
Pres Nevins ; Nishinomiya, Japan!

Pioneer releases- UK- Sept

Tenchi The Movie, 90 mins, dubbed, Ł12.99, PG.
Lodoss War, vol.2,55 mins, dubbed, Ł12.99.
Iria/Zeiram the Animation, vol.2, 58m, dubbed, Ł12.99

Pioneer releases - UK - July

In July, Pioneer are releasing:
Armitage III - The Movie 90 mins, widescreen, dubbed, Ł12.99, with the voices of Keifer Sutherland and Elisabeth Berkley.
Iria, vol.1, 60 mins, Ł12.99. Made by Bandai Visuals. Follows the fortunes of bounty hunter Iria, hunting the evil Zeiram. I bought this; it's quite good, and the heroine sems to be depicted with more depth than usual.
Lodoss War, vol 1. Made by Bandai (?). The famous fantasy anime series.
All should be good, (and if you have fan tapes already you can do the right thing and buy the official release).

Shinnenkai 1999

This anime convention, to be held in the UK in Autumn 1999, is already being planned. For details see:Shinnenkai

Minamicon IV Anime Report.

A report on the anime your editor saw at Minamicon.
There was plenty new or unfamiliar anime to watch, and some old favourites to be re-visited. There was more good stuff than at Shinnenkai- or was it that your editor just wasn't feeling so ill this time?
I saw only a few minutes of the obscure Eatman (TV), so can only say that it looks low budget and has quirky dialogue.
Childs Toy (TV) is a high-voltage comedy about a child actress, Sana, who lives with her eccentric mother (a mangaka) and has her own manager whom she innocently calls her "pimp". Sana has more energy than you've ever seen and a wonderful empathy with others. An unmistakeable hit.
Master Mosquiton (OVA) is a vampire story. Mosquiton (so I'm informed) is one of the world's original vampires who has been bound to serve a young woman through an ancient agreement with her ancestors. In the first OVA a pyramid, containing the powerful and sought-after "O-ring" (sic) appears in London, and the principal characters fly there to investigate. The OVA series is set in the 1920's. It's funny, but not outstanding.
Yawara (TV): A well-known high-school sports/comedy. Yawara's grandfather is a Judo champion who is determined that Yawara will follow in his footsteps. She's an ordinary high school girl with ordinary schoolgirl interests. Under her grandfather's tuition she becomes quite skilled at Judo, though she's not really interested in the sport. There is much scope for comic interest as Grandfather tries to keep Yawara training and away from boys, shopping etc. There is a lot of rather earthy humour, mostly to do with Yawara being a girl (do I have to spell this out for you?) The titles keep insisting that Yawara is cute. So who's arguing?
CLAMP School Detectives is set in a futuristic private school, the CLAMP school, which has elementary and higher divisions. The Detectives are the President of the elementary school students, and his two assistants. They have formed a detective club sworn to assist "all the women of the world". The stories are charming, and don't contain any violence or any insults to adult intelligence. As for the artwork, it's enough to make fans of pretty anime art melt all over the floor.
Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV) is creating something of a stir, especially in shoujo fan circles. It's set in a very fantastical sort of school. The heroine, Utena, wants to be a Prince, and in the first episode she fights a duel over another girl and wins her as her bride! The art is quite striking; despite this I didn't warm to it as the scenario seemed a bit contrived, not to mention containing a whiff of decadence.
Mononoke Hime was shown, this time with Chinese & English subtitles, though with a rather bad copy. The translation enables one to understand much more of what's going on. It has by turns the feel of a historical live-action epic, a fantasy movie, a romance, and an ecological parable. Not a typical anime at all, but deserves every yen of its huge success in Japan.
Hime-chan no Ribon (TV) is a charming magical-girl anime. Himeko is given a magical ribbon to try out for one year. It gives her the power to transform into an exact replica of any human on earth. Himeko is a rather tomboyish girl, who in the first episode has to wear her sports clothes to class (makes her look quite boy-ish) because she muddied her uniform playing ball. The in-school and out-of school behaviour of the young characters is well scripted and very funny, while Himeko's transformations (she starts by impersonating first the school principal, and then her sister) skirt the edge of disaster. I could have watched it all day.
Minky Momo (OVA 2) - Bridge of Dreams A late incarnation of the popular Magical Girl character, in which she makes repeated visits to a bridge in an European city, on which pairs of lovers meet and part. She hopes to meet again a young boy to whom she promised to make the magic of the bridge come true. Nothing very magical happens - or does it? Its very attractively animated and rather deeper than you'd expect for the magical Girl genre.
Creamy Mami Another oldish magical-girl anime, in which the heroine Yuu (another tomboy) chases after a UFO on her roller-skates, (towed by a kind of motorised monowheel), meets the aliens, is given a couple of cat-like aliens as pets, and also a magical baton. The baton allows Yuu to transform into a much older and prettier girl, who is promptly discovered as an idol singer, Creamy Mami. (Yuu's parents run a mobile fast-food stall "Creamy"). If you think this sounds very odd, you're probably right.
Maze (TV) is a girl who is whisked off to a fantasy world (along with her attic) and involved in some dangerous adventures. She has the unfortunate accident of changing into a sex crazed man every night, after which her companion starts calling her oni/onechan. (If you speak Japanese, you'll understand). It's the usual swords-& sorcery nonsense, but beautifully animated -especially the bodies of the girls.
Vampire Princess Miyu (TV) is a recent re-working of the classic vampire OVA series for TV. It preserves very much the look and feel of the original, but with new stories. The deadly schoolgirl, Miyu, still stalks shinma with her familiar, Laba, and those humans who probe too closely are likely to end up dead. It's quiet, considered, and so beautiful one wants to steal the TV screen. The only jarring note is that she has been given another small familiar.

Ranma TV #142 & 143 include the episodes in which Ranma meets his mother, but remains in his female form because his father is afraid to reveal himself because of an unwise promise he made years earlier. Good fun, but it seems nothing much has changed in the Tendo household.
I'll Make a Habit of It (TV) is another school/martial arts story, in which a girl from a martial arts dojo, tired of all the attention she gets, decides to disguise herself as a boy and attend a normal school. Lots of comic martial arts battles, love complications and so forth ensue.
Bewitching Nozumi (OVA). This has to be another Mitsuru ADACHI story, since it has a subject (boxing) that appears in Touch and Slowstep, similar character designs, and even has theme music very similar to the TOUCH 1 movie. So when did Adachi start writing magical stories? The young hero is moved to a new town, where he finds another transfer student, the attractive and sporty Nozumi, living next door. Indeed, their bedroom windows face each other. Nozumi actively pursues a friendship, and decides, for secret reasons of her own, that he ought to be a boxer, and enrolls him in the school boxing club, much against his will. In fact, the betwitchment is entirely sexual, as where Nozumi catches him peeping at her, and when he hotly denies it, she says "It's because I'm cute, isn't it?" Later, after a wind-blows-short-skirt incident, he thinks "Witch's place. I want that." It turns out that, as Nozumi perceived, he has an excellent "eye" for boxing. This is one of the best school-story anime I've seen yet.
Neon Genesis Evangelion TV #21,22. These two episodes are from late in the series, very downbeat, the first having a lot of flashbacks to before 2015, and the second showing a miserable and under-achieving Asuka Soryu Langley. An excellent piece of scripting. I have to say that, after seeing Asuka nearly die so bravely in an earlier episode, I come over all soppy inside every time she comes on screen.

Psychic Wars

Got a preview of Psychic Wars from Manga Video. (50 mins, cert 18, release date 11 May in UK). It's a rather undistinguished demons-try-to-take-over-world story. The plot is overly familiar, but the animation isn't bad. On the plus side, the downbeat tone of the dialogue and the well-designed all-adult set of characters is refreshing. I can't see why it's an 18 rather than a 15; somebody somewhere must be panicking.

Landlock

Got a preview of Landlock from Manga Video. (90mins, cert. 15, release date 8 March 1998 in UK) It's a fantasy, with the now common mixture of rural/medieval and high-tech. The young protagonists have powers that are desired by the ruler of a militaristic empire. Violence, tragedy, deception and filial love abound. It's not at all bad, being let down mainly by some poor dubbing, and the first half remains firmly in my mind from a subbed convention screening many months ago. As far as I know it's the only MV release for Feb/March. Seems they have adopted a new policy of releasing only better quality releases, much less often. It's fair to say that this is the best video MV have released here for ages, but it's equally fair to warn that this is more to do with the awfulness of what has gone before than the quality of LANDLOCK.

Multimedia

From time to time I get comments in the feedback form requesting "Animated pictures" , "Lots more images", etc. Now I've got nothing against this, or against Shockwave, Java etc, but I just can't compete with people who are able to hire graphic designers and programmers, or have a whole semester of a college computing course to fool around in. I simply don't have the time, and I'd rather spend what time I do have in making updates to the information every week or two. (I'd also note that there is an annoying increase in sites that look good but are completely unusable and un-navigable unless the Image components are downloaded, which usually takes ages.)

Titanic

If you are interested in special effects, check out the movie Titanic. Even when you know that you are watching an effect, it's impossible to see any joins. See the ship steaming though a calm Atlantic. See the scene dissolve between the new ship and the same view of the wreck. Only in the scene where the ship breaks in two is the illusion less than perfect. It's a good movie, worth the price of a ticket anyway. However, the love story takes up a lot of the 3+ hours, and if you want to see a movie focused on the disaster, you might prefer one of the several previous efforts e.g. "A Night to Remember", occasionally shown on TV.
(Web-surfers too young to have been touched by previous waves of Titanic interest should note that the loss of life, 1500 out of 2200, was appalling, that lifeboats were provided for only half those on board, that loading of the boats favoured the first-class passengers, and that almost nobody who didn't get in a lifeboat survived in the freezing sea. Controversy still surrounds the non-assistance by the nearby Californian .)

Editor's Illness

There are fewer changes to the site this month as I have been ill with chicken-pox (the nasty adult version)

Shinnenkai 1998 Report

I missed most of Friday as I had to work. On Saturday I was lucky enough to see a bootleg of MONONOKE HIME (the new Miyuzaki movie) in Cantonese... It's not typical anime, though looks like it was aimed principally at children. Great on medaeval Japan settings, looks rather like one of those Kurosawa live-action epics. The battle scenes are a bit reminiscent of Hong Kong movies, all acrobatic leaps. Definitely an epic, and I hope to watch it again. Also saw after midnight PERFECT BLUE. This isn't really an anime at all, but a live-action movie (rather a good one) for grown-ups, about an idol singer who switches career to acting, but has problems where she has mental delusions and/or is pursued by a stalker. It's "Rotoscoped" so that it looks like animation.
These two rather kicked all the other anime into touch, though I checked out some (Key the Metal Idol, Child's Toy etc) that were quite enjoyable.
I missed both the Japanese Guest Concert and the Masquerade as they ran late and I never stand in queues.

Pocket Monsters

If you haven't caught the news about this, where have you been? There's a summary on the CNN news page, and elsewhere.

The Humanoid

This has been released by Kiseki in the UK, subtitled - it seems to be the US Manga Corps version. How do I know this? I saw it in a shop. Another triumph of the Kiseki marketing dept. (not).

NTSC Play?

British market
Just saw an ad for a Daewoo VCR (DV-K281) that does NTSC play on Pal TV; it costs only Ł119.99! I should warn you though, that from what I've seen of ultra-budget long-play VCRs, the picture quality is awful. I bought an ex-rental VCR as a second standard-play only PAL VCR, and it cost more than this. I have no complaints though about the picture quality or the features. This year VCRs are cheaper than ever. However, according to one VCR service engineer I spoke to, the latest VCRs are not as well made as the older models of a few years ago.

Microsoft Rules OK?

This site is designed to be viewed with Netscape Navigator v2.0 or later. There shouldn't be problems with MS Internet Explorer, but I can't guarantee this.
If you are using MS Internet Explorer, are you using it because you chose it and prefer it to Netscape (and Mosaic), or just because Bill Gates says you have to? Did it come pre-installed on your new PC?
Did you realise that when PC builders pre-install Windows, it is a condition of their licence that they have to install MS Internet Explorer as well as Windows95.
There was even a case when MS kindly donated some copies of Windows for Workgroups (obsolete) to schools, but made it a condition of the gift that MS Internet Explorer be installed on the school PCs.
In case the penny still has not dropped, what Microsoft is trying to do in giving its browser away free, is to kill off Netscape, its only significant competitor in the HTML browser market. Should they succeed, nobody should be surprised when the price of Explorer shoots up from nothing to Ł50 or more (check the prices of similar-sized MS software products).
The US Justice Dept didn't think much of Microsoft's brower bundling scheme either, and has obtained a ruling against them, which if unchallenged will spike Windows 98 as well as the current free bundling.
And beware of MS Internet Explorer 4.0; it will take over your Windows desktop if you let it, and the thought of uninstalling it never even crossed the MS programmers' minds. It's alleged that to get rid of the thing completely, you have to reformat the hard disk. In the forthcoming Windows 98, the browser and desktop are likewise inextricably integrated.

AD Vision releases

AD Vision are still churning out the releases. Just got loaned the preview of Evangelion tape 0.5. I hear that Asuka Soryu Langley is a favourite character with fans in some countries. Hardly surprising considering how catatonic some of the other chars. are. Of course Asuka is brattish, over-confident and annoying, but you'd have to be flinty hearted not to be won over by a girl who faces apparently certain death so bravely in episode 10.
Also check out AD Vision's new swords & sorcery series; it looked interesting, and has no connection with another S&S series with a similar name.
All the old anime comments have been relocated in the UK Anime section

Shop for Anime by Phone.

HMV have a telephone order scheme and catalogue that includes the various UK anime labels. Ring 0990-334578 (UK); or search for the HMV International web-site for your country information. Pick up the catalogue from a HMV shop.

Electronic Translation of Japanese into English

I'm currently investigating this question. It looks as though it IS possible to scan a printed text, convert it by OCR into electronic Japanese text, and then machine translate it. See the FAQ section.
If you have experience in this area, please contact me by e-mail!!
Still on the subject of subtitles, I hear reports that Manga are going to offer subtitled versions of many of their releases, and that these will be available not through retail outlets, but by mail order via their Internet site, Manga Video. Check it out.

Pioneer video releases, UK

El Hazzard in Nov. and Jan. I've bought this, and it's really good.
Pretty Sammy Vol.1 is announced for Jan'98.
Unlike some labels one could name, Pioneer have yet to release a dud title. So start saving your pennies.

PAL Anime Videos from France

Matt J. Francis writes:
As you already seem to be collecting info on Anime reaching the UK from Europe on satellite, I was wondering whether you'd noticed that recently it's been possible to get some Anime released in France in PAL format... I think I'm right in saying that everything Kaze Animation does is now produced this way, as well as the regular SECAM flavour (at least that's what I made out from a recent Animeland; excellent magazine that. We need one over here :) To date I've come across Ranma OAVs, all of Lodoss War, IRIA, and some other bits I forget, and ISTR also that it's Kaze who're now releasing Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Not 100% sure about that though).
Editor's Comment: I'd better leave you to figure out where Matt saw these unlicensed videos on sale... If you don't have any luck, you could try ordering them from France, and note that that this is 100% legal.

31.5.97

ftp.tcp.com: in view of the threatened closure I have switched all references over to the mirror at ftp.sunet.se
I have joined this site to the Anime Ring and the Link Exchange. Sorry if the extra clutter upsets anyone, but I am hoping to boost the hit rate from the present 10 per day trickle.

ftp.tcp.com to vanish!

The operator of this major site announces:
...effective May 22, 1997, tcp.com and all of its virtual domains and services will be discontinued. Please make whatever arrangements are necessary before then to make other arrangements for the services you need.
This affects Shoujo & General as I have made many links to files and images on that site. So if you click on an icon, and it doesn't work, you'll know why. I hope to figure out a solution and put it in place during the next few weeks. [G.Cowie, 27.4.97].

Helen McCarthy's Mangamania

It is reliably reported that the project is still alive and the next issue might appear in May. (Nov. 1997; it's been appearing bimonthly, but the amount of paid advertising looks ominously small. If you like the magazine, better subscribe or something.)

Amazing Wave of Anime TV Hits UK

Your editor personally discovered that two German satellite TV stations are transmitting daily animation programmes including up to 8 anime shows a day to Europe including the U.K. The number of hours of anime a week seems comparable with that enjoyed in Japan! Titles include LADY OSCAR (=Rose of Versailles) and GEORGIE (shoujo).
(See main index for new satellite section.)
(Since this is my personal space, I'll venture a personal opinion, which is that, while shoujo anime in German may be a minority taste, for such a major anime resource to have been completely unknown is outrageous, and it shows British anime fandom in a very poor light. As for it being all in German, how many fans understand Japanese well enough to follow a storyline? And British fans have been known to collect European anime on tape - Ranma 1/2 in French is fun!)

Pirate CDs

Quite a lot of fans at Shinnenkai 1997 bought anime CDs on the "SM" label at attractive prices. These were, as it turns out, pirate CDs from Taiwan. Though the labels and sleeves look just like the real thing, the gold-coloured disc is a give-away. If you thought you got a bargain, you will be delighted to learn that in Taiwan these CDs cost $8 (about Ł5), and that none of the money reaches the creators and copyright owners.

Ramblings

As I was posting some letters, I saw a currency rate display that shows that the Ł is stronger against the Yen than it's been for years - the sell rate for yen notes has just hit 200.0 to the Ł.
John G. lent me a review copy of Fred Schodt's new Manga book (Dreamland Japan), a sort of follow up to the Manga! Manga! one he did some while ago. John wanted to perform some electronic rite with it, so I returned it, foolishly forgetting to make a note of the bits I found particularly interesting. There was a woman manga artist who did a manga with a cat in it - But I was also interested in a seminal manga magazine called GARO ; seems it has been going for 30 years or so, never sold many copies but many good artists got a start in it.
Did I mention the anime TV series ESCAFLOWNE? A U.S. fan keeps sending me tapes of it; I have some idea what's going on but nobody seems to have published a full synopsis (in English) yet. It's quite good; better than a lot of anime that I've suffered lately anyway, and the fantasy/ dream bits are particularly fine.
THEY WERE 11 (U.S. subtitled version) Adequate adaptation of the Moto Hagio manga, with some nice effects. I like the human-interest story, but the science is way off course (I have a BSc, I should know).
DARKSIDE BLUES - an interesting and distinctly arty anime - one has the feeling that the makers did their thing without reference to the Market or the Accountants! The credits have a lot of odd symbols like 18th cent. horsedrawn carriages that remind me right away of Rose of Versailles and Dear Brother (where they also appear),and these doubtless have acquired some coded meaning... Then there is a blues singer, and various interesting characters, including some terrorists. I like it.

Editorial

(Originally written for Anime no Nyusu column in the now-defunct CRITICAL WAVE magazine.)
One of the more interesting books to come into my hands this summer is Helen McCarthy's THE ANIME MOVIE GUIDE (Titan Books, Ł9.99), a movie-guide style summary of anime videos (not TV) made since 1983. While it doesn't claim to be fully comprehensive, it is in practice a fairly comprehensive listing of all the anime (except TV) of any interest to Western fans. This is a notable first - in English at any rate, for I have seen a possibly more comprehensive listing (without reviews) given away with a Japanese magazine. For the first time, we fans can see how much anime there is, and how much of quality remains to be discovered. One insight is that the material has been well trawled over by Western fans and video companies and nothing likely to gain wide popularity remains undiscovered. There is still plenty of obscure material to please the enthusiast, particularly if the enthusiast has tastes that differ from the somewhat unsophisticated requirements of the typical Western anime fan. With Helen McCarthy's book in hand, one can better understand why there is little to get excited about in Britsh anime shops this summer. The great anime, like the Miyuzaki titles recently bought up by Disney, were always far too expensive for British companies, and there is not much else of superior quality left to sell. That said, I have always suspected that, with the notable exception of the now-departed Andy Frayn, whose genius launched Manga Video, most British anime executives have the marketing skill of a dead ferret. How else to explain the obscurity of GIGI & THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, a tape whose packaging, on a juvenile label, was so unpromising that I hestitated to invest Ł1 in it. There was a fan's note saying that it was really 'Minky Momo' (a TV series for small Japanese girls). In fact, it's a blast, with great animation, a wild story, and a very witty dub script, better than most of the British releases this year, and even my mother thought it was "better than Disney". The charming PEEK THE WHITE WHALE which, if dubbed and well promoted should have made some headway in the family market, earlier sold a negligible quantity of subtitled tapes. Then there's WHISPER OF THE HEART, an animated film made last year by Studio Ghibli (who make the Miyuzaki movies) with a script by the master. It's about Suzuku, a book-loving schoolgirl who finds a curio shop, meets an interesting boy, and impressed by his talents decides to test herself by writing a fantasy story. Excuse me while I fall off my chair in a heap of admiration murmuring things like "Wonderful, wonderful!" "Best animated or live-action film from Japan!" "Makes all the other animation look cheap and nasty!" "How refreshing to have a story about intellectual interests!" "Wonderful recreation of Japanese everyday life!" and so on, because it really is that good. Not mass market though; no sex & violence whatsoever. Disney are said to have bought the rights, but if you want to see it anytime soon, in its original form, better busy yourself in the fan scene.

Gossip

Rumoured delays/problems at AD VISION may affect the UK branch. Also seems the videos are not selling as well in the UK as hoped; poor distribution may be to blame. When did you last see an ADV title in a UK shop?

Hardware

You may be interested to know that the constantly-changing offerings of NTSC-play VCRs in the UK high streets now includes one from Akai (VS-G245) with a r.r.p of Ł200.
On the laserdisc front, the cheapest NTSC player costs only Ł399 - the price of ten anime discs (large discounts on offer). Laserdisc format should be current for the next five years, says Pioneer.

TV (UK)

Company News
AD Vision: regular UK releases!
East2West: Going Bankrupt.
Western Connection: Resting:
U.S.A. : Everything you ever heard of is being released, it seems...

Personal Comment
Trawling through one of the mailing lists I have more than once stumbled on heated discussion of the ethics of engaging in fan-subbing, translating and tape trading. At one time few fans would make any criticism of such activities, but nowadays some fans (particularly those with deep pockets) are quick to point out that such actions are robbing the creator companies of their rights under copyright, and robbing the creators and Western licencees of revenue.
The original justification for fan tape trading is losing some of its force. (See above). The volumes of tapes traded are quite large, (one subber alone claimed to despatch 500 a month) and it would be a brave businessman who issued a video that had been the object of fan taping for months or years. Fan copying does cut fans free from the whims of distributors, but one can never assume with any confidence that a particular anime will never be released or become the object of negotiations.
As a footnote; as far as I can determine, fan taping is illegal in the US, while in Britain there are exemptions for unlicensed foreign videos.

[G.Cowie]