Letters

Mr. Matthews-

Forgive me for being a nit-picky irritant but in your latest "Last Exit Before Toll" you noted that Serial Experiments Lain was "a sure release in America from the moment paintbrush hit cel.". Now, I'm sure you know this, but paintbrush never hit cel for Serial Experiments Lain - the show was done 100 percent digitally in the "early" days of digital animation in Japan. You can really tell, too, because the animation gets downright crude sometimes.

-
tservo@azstarnet.com

Correction noted. But that sentence wouldn't have sounded as good with "from the moment stylus hit touchpad" or "from the moment finger clicked mouse". :-)

I am currently doing research on the anime fandom in the US and how fans use the internet (a clever way to think of nothing but my favourite hobby all day and work on my degree at the same time, don´t you think?) Your column and Anipike in general has been most helpful for this.

A question: I keep reading that anime fans are overwhelmingly male. Fred Schodt said in an interview (with EX) that 80% of all manga readers are male. I have difficulties believing this since I know A LOT of female anime fans. There also seem to be quite a lot of female website authors. You being an expert, what are your experiences?

Thanks again,
Nina ninafroe@yahoo.com

From my experience, the female otaku is a rare breed. As a woman, I would guess you're more likely to know female anime fans than us guys are. But go to any convention and count a sample. I'm pretty sure you'll find males outnumbering females 3-to-1. As for female website authors, it depends on the anime being covered. Usually, there's no way for me to tell the gender of a site author, save that they explicitly give their real name on the page. I do remember when I did Fushigi Yuugi sites, though. The overwhelming number of sites were maintained by women (mostly by girls, to be accurate).

Having been an avid reader of your Last Exit column ever since it was introduced to the AniPike, I have run across some very interesting articles by you which I am hoping to translate and share with my fellow countrymen in Taiwan. I was wondering if this is possible, and/or whether any conditions must be met beforehand?

Sasami-chan rurikay@yahoo.com.tw

Sounds interesting. All I'd need to know is what the URL would be. I'd require that the copyright notice "Last Exit Before Toll © 1997-1999 Ryan Mathews. All Rights Reserved." be displayed, and that you take credit as translator, thus taking the blame for anything I said that may translate to something offensive in Chinese or Taiwanese. :-)

I really like this month's topic, especially as an introduction to the less popular anime/manga. I notice that you're doing it in alphabetical order. As I have a feeling that you'll only approach this topic every other column, I hope you'll jump around the alphabet--do all the T's or all the H's.

I have a recommendation for two sites:

kuryugumi's Tokyo Crazy Paradise - http://www.geocities.com/kuryugumi

Though there are only two pages listed on the Anipike, that's probably because more are not necessary. kuryugumi has everything, from manga translations and image galleries to a message board, which is sadly underused. They do a terrific job of keeping the site updated, whether it be new translations, pictures, or general news, and the web design is pleasant to the eye, with a creative use of backgrounds. Needless to say, I hang out there a lot, being a great fan of both Tokyo Crazy Paradise and the site itself.

The second TCP site (http://nussu.nus.edu.sg/~peichi/tcpmain.html) is good, too. While it can't match kuryugumi for content, it has a certain charm, being by someone in Singapore following the Chinese version of the comics. I especially like the book summaries.

The second site I'm recommending is for Hana Yori Dango. I came across it researching the live action movie, and never bothered checking the rest of the Anipike entries--it's provided me with everything I wanted to know about Hana Yori Dango. It concentrates on the anime, but there's a section for the manga and the movies. I really like the web design.

Emily's Hana Yori Dango - http://members.xoom.com/Emichan/hana.html

Venkarel
venkarel@iname.com
http://www.geocities.com/venkarel.geo
100 Best Scenes from Fushigi Yuugi - http://tamahome.com/FushigiYuugi/

In Anipike, there are a buncha HATE sites, and I just happen to own one (The Anti-Yuu Yuu Hakusho Club HQ). I've noticed that all webmasters of sites under this genre are usually "discriminated" just because of the way they think. I for one example, receive an average of four hate mails a day. My guestbook is also being flame mailed, and somebody even dared to use my name and write stupid things, like I claim to be cool and stuff of that sort. While others who have message boards, such as the Anti-Relena Club, and pro-(name of an anime/anime character) people trash it down.

As I know it, every people who shows a little (yeah, just a little) hate for a certain anime/manga, receive a good helping of FLAME mails per week. Isn't it weird that these people, who love their favorite animes so much, visit these HATE sites in order to pester the owners? I want to know your side on that, since you tend to be so critical on almost everything (actually, I just thought of that after reading your rant on those image galleries).

Sarah
stan622@skyinet.net
Anti-Yuu Yuu Hakusho Club HQ ( http://rukurow.freeservers.com//public_html//index.html )

Let me get this straight. You run a "Hate Site", whose purpose is pretty much just to say "this anime sucks", and you don't understand why you're being flamed?? Negative emotions breed negative emotions. Mind you, I agree that it's childish to become upset just because someone else says bad thing about something you like, but it's still something you need to expect. If you don't want flame-mails, don't run a hate site.

Whoa, look at what I found in my mailbox. And here I was sure this month's topic was my idea...

I didn't realise that you were in such dire straits for a topic, otherwise I would have suggested one to coincide with the upcoming release of Miramax's Princess Mononoke: Ghibli sites. There are several good ones out there, the finest example easily being nausicaa.net.

Oh well... 'till next time.

Akio Nagatomi
The Animé Café
URL: http://www.abcb.com
e-mail: master@abcb.com

I thought I'd mention that I think I'll tell people on my ML to check out your column this month - I understand precisely what you mean about the various statements from "fans" and the general stance of "fandom", two terms that for so much of our market can only be used very loosely, today. Before anyone wishes to claim that they are a fan of anything, they need to seriously think about just what a fan really IS - and what a fan IS NOT. Anime and manga are artforms created in Japan, but the definition of what a fan is does not change just because of that. I am not talking about the technical derivation of the word, either - I am speaking of its definition in common speech, today.

Also, I thought I'd mention a small correction - or maybe addition would be a better term. You mentioned Burn Up!... I just wanted to point out that Burn Up was originally a one-shot OVA, and ADV's fourth title release, ever (after Battle Angel). Frankly, I love the original Burn Up! because it had a somewhat original storyline and beautiful character designs and art detail - all the other incarnations had a different character designer, and I just couldn't get interested enough to check them out. People might remember that the first Burn Up! OVA series (after the one-shot) was supposedly partly funded by ADV... I don't know if they have continued with that, but I wouldn't be surprised. If they have, it certainly would not be any surprise that they will bring out the TV series - heck, it was probably written into the funding contract.

This also brings up a point that many people seem to be rather forgetful about - that is, the Japanese market has seen a very significant influence from overseas sales, particularly from the foreign North American market. This is only natural - after all, as Toshimichi Suzuki (creator of Bubblegum Crisis) once mentioned in an interview, Japan's market is such that 10,000 units is a good seller (such as BGC), whereas the American market would consider that to be a low starting point... a very low starting point. In recent years, we can easily see the influence of the market here on works chosen for production in Japan - the lure of sales over here is very strong for studios, especially as the economy dipped in Japan. People need to realize that the bottom line for any company is to make money - by definition, fans will help them do that by purchasing the licensed versions of shows they enjoy, either Japanese import or domestic release.

Naturally, as you pointed out, many people choose not to do this, but buy fansubs instead... of course, such people are not fans at all. To refuse to support the licensed version of a work steals support from the very people who make it - anyone doing such actions who tries to claim that they are a fan is stating a contradiction in terms. You either are a fan, or you are not - and any fan does not steal from the people they supposedly love and appreciate. It's one thing to check out a title - it's another to simply build a huge collection of illegal (and thus unsupporting) copies. Think about it, folks.

Dave Endresak AiTenshi@aol.com http://members.aol.com/AiTenshi/
Founder, KASHA (Kawaii Shoujo, Anonymous)

Nice to hear from you again, Dave. As usual, you're a man of few words. :-) :-)

I thoroughly enjoyed the rant you had on Fan-subs. Another thing I want to add to your column is the constant EGO-WARs that some smaller fan-sub groups and distributors try to start. Stuff like that is totally unnecessary and a waste of spit over titles that will be gobbled up by the commercial companies. Also goes to wonder if they are purposely trying to "slag" their "competition" just to get the bucks of some fan over fan-subs.

I'm not entirely accusing all fan-subbers and distro groups of doing such. But there are some who are doing questionable things and applying questionable prices to their jobs. Also there are people who are defrauding some fans by posing as a Distro group and/or fan-subbers. But this is another topic to discuss.

Fan-subbing SHOULDN'T be about who's good and who's bad. Let the people decide on whose fan-sub caters to their needs. Whether good or bad, accessable or not, etc. Egos should be out of it. It makes one group look more idiotic than the other, and gives a bad name in the good-will industry (if you can call it that) of fan-subbing. Remember the old saying "A rotten apple, spoils the bunch"?

Chadwick Ma Vice-President Vancouver Japanese Animation Society chadma@direct.ca http://www.VJAS.ORG