Guests' Web Picks

   Privet! No. Ohayou... No. Hi! That's better.

   That's me, Boris Ivanov, the one and the only webmaster of the not-so-well-known out there site "Anime and Manga in Russia".

   In case you don't remember where and what Russia is - it is a huge block of soil, which lies both in Europe and Asia. We have ice in the North, terrorists in the South, all kinds of Nazis in the West, and Japan, anime and manga in the East. That's why my friends and I are interested in JAM - we are not fond of ice, terrorists and Nazis.

   Even when we were USSR and were known as a "Red Threat", we had had some anime in our movie theaters. Why? Because (in case you don't know) Japan wants us to return four territories conquered by the Red Army in 1945. That's why every fall since 1966, Japanese embassy holds a festival of Japanese culture and a festival of Japanese movies (including animation). They mostly show us Miyazaki though I don't know how Miyazaki could change our minds about our faithfully conquered islands.

   Anyway, after the fall of the Soviet Empire anime started to get through to those of us who was not interested in Japanese festivals - by means of videotapes. Have you ever tried to watch anime voice-overed into Russian from the English dub, both poorly made and translated? Quite a treat, I should say.

   So, once upon a time in a big city called Moscow, (Russian Anime and Manga - http://ranma.anime.ru) club was born. At first there were three otaku willing to exchange rare original tapes. Then there were four of them, five... To make a long story short, now we have about 200 members, many regional subdivisions and several competing otaku clubs.

   Me? I was the 30th member. First anime that really impressed me? "Urotsukidoji". My friend brought me a tape, I watched it and said - "They make animated porn feature movies? Perverts! I like them!" And I was hooked.Then I made a small page about Urotsukidoji in the end of 1997 - one of the first anime pages in Russian. It grew large; I made a big page about Japan, anime, Slayers, Urotsukidoji...

   In 1998, a sysop whom I have never seen or heard asked me via e-mail if I would like to be a webmaster of "http://www.anime.ru".   I accepted this generous offer and started to work on it.

   So, now we have the best Russian anime, manga and Japan site in the world! Recently I have published some bits from the site as a book - "Introduction to the Japanese Animation", the first Russian book on this subject. It has brought me the reward of the Russian Guild of Cinema Critics and Experts. Well, it is not an Oscar or even Nika (Russian equivalent of Oscar), but an adequate prize for the 21-old wanna-be animation expert. IMHO, of course.   ^_^

   BTW, anime becomes more and more popular in Russia. God knows why not one of our major TV-channels show anything except for the fourth rerun of "Sailor Moon". Do they love "Disney", "Beavis&Butthead" and "Simpsons" that much? I seriously doubt it.

  And now for the long awaited section - Favorite Links.

- The best of the best animation chronology. A number of mistakes, yes, but an overall extremely cool piece of work.

- Also kakkoii. Very helpful, if you need the reason to celebrate every day.   ^_^

- The only anime series I personally own a complete and legal set of. Nice and well-designed site. English translation of the first novel included!

- My secret love, shoujo with a twist and a stick. Just don't do it the SM-way, baby.

34;Marmalade Boy Guide" - My second secret love, Japanese school soap operas. Yuu, you are my role model!

- Just for a change, something about old and non-commercial animation. I don't like it, but it is interesting anyway.

- Don't try to read it - it is in Russian. Just download the pics. BTW, there are some other jpgs, not anime fanart, but still quite OK. They are drawn by Anry, Russian sci-fi and fantasy books illustrator. And a member of RAnMA, of course.

No shameless plugs this time. is Russian only.   ^_^

  That's all for today. Do svidaniya. Sayonara. Bye. Sorry for bad English. My Japanese and German are worse.   ^_^

    bi[shounen]