//////////////////////////////ANIME STUFF\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ "Reviews and Information on Japanese Animation Software" ISSUE 17 8/17/1992 This is the 17th in a series of files of comments and reviews of anime (Japanese animation) items that we have bought. Please direct all comments to us by E-mail or post us a message in the Forum. We also welcome any reviews, artwork, or comments you would like to have included in the next ANIME STUFF issue. Also please send us any comments about any incorrect information contained here. A correction will be placed in the next ANIME STUFF. The ANIME STUFF Staff... - Tom Mitchell : Editor, Writer, Graphics, CompuServe & GEnie Distributor CompuServe Address : 75156,1067 GEnie Address : TOM-M - Masaki Takai : Writer & BBS System Distributor CompuServe Address : 75106,3257 - Rick Sternbach : Anime Modeler, Writer CompuServe Address : 74616,526 - Barry Brown : INTERNET Distributor INTERNET Address : >INTERNET:barry@network.ucsd.edu - Albert Wong : Writer, Index Research CompuServe Address: 72657,2103 Internet Address: Albertw@chips.com, 72657.2103@compuserve.com, Prodigy Address: WJTM10B Contributing Authors for this Issue: - Chris Swett : Pioneering Anime Fan CompuServe Address: 72736,433 Internet Address: 7514P@@NAVPGS.BITNET \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\OTAKU NO ORACLE///////////////////////////// Whew! A lot of time has passed between issues. And I have seen more anime stuff than I even have time to comment on. I also have a lot of random thoughts about things. So, for this editorial comment, I'll just flip the mind's notepad and comment on a few of things I have jotted down there... > Special thanks should go to Roe Adams not only for granting the great interview that appears in this issue's ANIME LIFE section, but also because he helped me to secure two anime laserdiscs that I had a hell of a time obtaining: THE SOUTHERN CROSS PERFECT COLLECTION laserdisc box set, and the new laserdisc pressing of ANGEL'S EGG. I had only been trying to get Angel's Egg on LD since 1986. It was a VERY rare LD. Also, I had early reservations to get last year's SOUTHERN CROSS box set of the TV series, but the company that I had it on order with folded. It was a limited run, so I had no chance of getting it from any place else. But Roe found both of these items for me. Indiana Adams managed to find my "Anime Holy Grail" and my "Anime Lost Ark". Thanks Roe! I hope to review these items in a future issue of Anime Stuff. > Speaking of Roe Adams; I came up with a nickname for him. "Rotaku". It fits somehow. If you see him, call him that. He seems to like it. (^_^) > My favorite OAV of the past year? THE NAME OF THE WIND IS AMNESIA. First feature length SF OAV in YEARS. Best since the golden age of the feature length OAV (1984-87). Nobody seems to be watching it, though. Check it out. It's filled with emotional drama and action. I plan on reviewing this for a future issue. > I finished the wonderful Mospeada Wonder box. It's the Genesis Climber Mospeada TV series on Laserdisc. I will also comment on this in a future issue. I now have all the LD sets for the original TV shows that were edited together for the American show ROBOTECH; Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada. I have seen all of these shows in their original form, so I think that qualifies me to comment on them in relation to how they were used in Robotech. (I also have all of Robotech on tape.) Many of us first got attracted to anime through Robotech, and I took the time to explore the origins of the original shows. Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the U.S. since Carl Macek edited them together for Robotech to do this. Nobody I know collected any of these sets. These were really fun TV shows that also have a lot of historical value for us anime fans in America. Why wasn't anyone interested in these? Oh well, if you want 'em, you're out of luck with the exception of the Mospeada set which is still currently available. > Be sure and check out AnimEigo's first laserdisc release, Vampire Princes Miyu. An excellent subtitled translation of a unique and classic horror OAV series. Anime Stuff staff member Masaki Takai did most all of the translation work for this, and it is superb. > For everyone who's been thinking about collecting the original Kimagure Orange Road manga, now is a good time to start. They have just been issued in compiled hardcover editions. A bargain at about $12 each. There are 5 of them out so far, taking you about halfway through the original 18 volumes of the manga. A new one is released each month. Nikaku Animart is stocking these. > My votes for best CD BGM release this year has to go to the MACROSS COMPLEAT COLLECTION. (Reviewed in this issue.) Another good BGM release is the soundtrack to Video Girl Ai, which also gets my vote for best special CD package design. The artwork for this CD makes innovative use of a clear CD jewelbox along with a wonderful full color CD label. Worst special package design goes to the soundtrack CD for 3x3 Eyes. Wonderful soundtrack, but the packaging is terrible in these environmentally enlightened times. The CD jewelbox is packaged in a close-fitting full color cardboard box that duplicates the artwork printed on the cover of the CD's jewelbox. Redundant, wasteful, and hard to store with the rest of your CDs. > Several of my favorite artist have artbooks out based on their fantasy themed work. Inomata, Takada, & Mikimoto saw fantasy artbooks released this year featuring artwork from their story illustration work for Dragon Magazine. The only disappointing book of the three was Mikimoto's book ELVERS. The work in it was ill-defined and too abstract at points...just plain poorly drawn and painted. Also, the scenery and costumes in the paintings are very uninspired. One is able to see all the influences from other work, including GUNDAM! Ugh. It's almost like Hal imitates Yas. Takada and Inomata, the ladies in this trio, seem to have a much better grasp of fantasy art and composition than Mikimoto does. (Keep in mind that this is a Mikimoto fan saying this.) > Hey! Look! Animag is back! Yaaaaay! > Are we going to have to wait as long for Silent Mobius 2 on video as we had to for Silent Mobius 1? > Hey! Look! A Cream Lemon boxed LD set! What? It only has episode highlights in it? BOOOOOOOOOOO! > It's going on three years without any new Dirty Pair animation. (sniffle) And speaking of Dirty Pair, I finally got around to checking out the American DP comic adaptation. Hey, as a DP fan, I'm very impressed. They really have a handle on what the Pair are all about, and the artwork is beautiful! > I just saw the Ranma movie. A bit too frantic and obvious for me. Needs a better story. I love the manga, but I've not seen the TV series yet. > Polydor............................................AAAAAAAAGH! > Check out the Genesis Survivor Giarth OAV. Boy this video was fun. colorful and full of action. Sure, the story was pretty basic good vs. evil stuff, but it was all executed so well that I hope we see more. Rockin' BGM by AD POLICE BGM band Toto Gentica too! > Special thanks to AnimEigo for offering us the fantastic Bubblegum Crash! cell art that was used for this issue. AnimEigo also sells anime cels from time-to-time as well. Ask about them. Well, that's enough for now. You'll get another serving next issue. I hope everyone enjoys this one! - Tom Mitchell Publisher ///////////QUICK NOTE - Rumic America Project & the Comic Market\\\\\\\\\\ Chris Swett is a unique person among even the most rabid anime fans. He was probably the first ever foreigner to produce and sell his own comic "dojinshi" for sale at Japan's huge Comic Market. The Comic Market is THE meeting place in Japan for Japanese manga and comic fans, and is known for having a lot of unique new talent shown off there among the authors of "dojinshi", the popular fan published comics and books featured at the show. Dojinshi often feature stories based on popular characters written and drawn by fans as either new stories or parodies. Chris created "RANMA IN AMERICA" a publication that featured several artists doing parodies of Chris' favorite anime show, Ranma 1/2. And he's getting ready to do it again! And helping to pave the way for other foreign visitors who might also want to attend the comic market in the process. Below are a couple E-Mail messages that describe his even more ambitious plans for the near future... From: Chris Swett, 72736,433 To: Tom Mitchell, 76701,273 Date: Tue, Apr 14, 1992, 1:12 AM Subject: Rumic America Information on the doujinshi project "Rumic America" Ranma in America was published on 29 December 1991 and was featured at Winter Comic Market (Komike 41) in Tokyo, Japan. I attended Comic Market and sold the books myself, with some much appreciated assistance from Robert Woodhead, Roe Adams and Michael House of AnimEigo's Tokyo branch as well as my partner, Yoshitaka Ishigami. The books were very popular and we sold 176 in a little over five hours at a cover price of 500 yen. Ranma in America was so successful that we are planning a second book, to be called Rumic America. This second book will be published in December 1992 for the next Winter Comic Market (Komike 43). I will be considering comic stories, single illustrations and other art that incorporates elements of the universes of Takahashi Rumiko. Contributors receive periodic progress updates, a complimentary copy for each team member and the exposure of being published in Japan, same as for Ranma in America. Submissions are due on or before 1 September 1992. Art must be black and white line drawings and may use zip tones. Washes or other greyscale techniques will not reproduce well in the printing process we are using. I can accept original art up to 9" x 12" in dimension or high quality photocopies of same. I can also provide Japanese art boards by special arrangement. We work on a break-even basis, so I'm stingy with boards. Submissions for Ranma in America ranged between 1 and 21 pages in length. Works by Rumiko Takahashi: Urusei Yatsura Maison Ikkoku Ranma 1/2 Firetripper Laughing Target One Pound Gospel Supergal Mermaid's Forest For information, write to: Chris Swett 470 Spencer St., #2 Monterey, CA 93940 or email CompuServe: 72736,433, America Online: "ChrisSwett", or Internet: 7514P@@NAVPGS.BITNET Plus Chris is planning to go the Comic Market again! And now you could go to! Chris has taken the time to research the options for foreigners attending the Japanese manga show. Here is the note he's provided on-line... Announcement: For those on the net who don't know, Comic Market is a semi-annual doujinshi (fanzine) trade show held in Harumi (Tokyo) in August and December. Summer Comic Market this year is August 15th and 16th and Winter Comic Market will be December 29th and 30th. Approximately 200,000 fans attend these conventions and around 8,000 exhibitors are registered. Those aren't typos. There really are 200,000 fans at these events that run from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on two days! The reason I am writing this message is because last year I was the first American ever to attend this convention as a registered exhibitor (ie. I had a dealer's table and sold doujinshi). As a result, the Comic Market staff have suddenly become aware of American fandom and would like to invite other American fans to participate in Comic Market. To this end I have been appointed to act as a liaison and will try to answer questions about the convention, assist fan groups in registering and generally provide any help I can. It's too late to register for a table at Summer Comic Market this year and the registration window for Winter Comic Market is 17-19 August 92. However, I have found the Comic Market staff to be extremely helpful and understanding of the situation with American fans and they will give as much consideration as they can. The basic rules are thus: ORIGINAL artwork is most strongly encouraged. Parodies of famous characters are also ok, but if I remember correctly you're limited to 3000 copies. Direct copies, bootlegs, etc are unacceptable. Artwork must conform to the Japanese legal guidelines for censorship of nudity and I think all subscribers to this newsgroup know the details there (I'll spell them out on request). You can sell books, magazines, stationery, rubber stamps, keychains, original animation art (ie. cels), music (original), figurines, etc. Most registrants sell compilation comics, as I did and will do again in December. A Comic Market staff member will inspect any doujinshi you bring to sell and will take one copy. They have become particularly strict on conformity to censorship laws following the big crackdown on doujinshi about two years ago. The wearing of costumes is discouraged, however if you want to fly all the way to Japan just to engage in COSPLAY (Costume Play) with other fans, there is a courtyard area where this is permitted. You have to carry your costume into the convention center and change inside. Standard weapons policy applies and you can't exit the convention center area without changing back to street clothes. Using the restrooms for changing clothes is not permitted because restrooms are at a premium when you have 200,000 people in one place. Dressing rooms are set aside for this. You have to get a person's permission prior to taking a picture of him/her. A while back a tv news crew shot some tape of people in costumes and it aired. Big problems for some individuals. Hence, ask before shooting pictures. There is no admission fee to attend Comic Market if you just want to buy stuff. The price you pay is waiting in line to get inside. If you thought the line to get into Space Mountain at Disney World was long you ain't seen nothing! It took two hours for the attendants of Winter Comic Market to walk through the entrance gate last year. The gate is about 50 feet wide. The flip side is that the police aren't going to let you camp out on the sidewalk all night, either. So, all these people arrive by public transportation at nearly the same time insofar as that is possible without matter-energy transport. Now, if you are a registered exhibitor you get a pass for yourself and all your "circle". That gets you in without having to stand in line! Dealers tables aren't very big but they aren't very expensive either, being somewhere on the order of $20, depending on the relative strengths of yen and dollar. Yes, you actually do have to have something to sell and you have to man your table. That one has already been tried. You can, however, swap off with your other circle-mates so you can shop. The AnimEigo staff did me that favor last year. Ok, if you want to attend Comic Market as a registered exhibitor or want to go to see it and need help, I'll help you in any way I can. Exhibitors must submit a catalog entry by 19 August. This consists of a tiny sketch about 2 inches tall by 1 1/2 inches wide and includes the name of the fan group, name of the book (if applicable) and an address. It looks like a little yellow-pages ad sketched out by hand. This sketch gets pasted in a box on the application form, which my staff friends will fill out in Japanese for you. It will be used in the assembling of a catalog of all the exhibitors represented. Attendees buy these books in order to plan their six-hour buying spree. There is so little time left for Winter Comic Market that I will give anyone interested an address in Japan where they can send this directly. I may be able to help with hotel reservations, advice on train tickets or other info. Just ask. Ben Dunn, Robert DeJesus and I are all going this December so you won't be alone. --- Chris /////////////////////////////GIF GRAPHICS NOTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Once again, this issue comes packed with GIF format computer graphics. These graphics are all in the GIF 89a format, and can be viewed on all popular computer platforms. Here is a list of the contents for this issue: AS17G01.GIF - 522 x 681 x 256 colors This is the digital "cover" for this 17th issue of Anime Stuff. It features a digitized shot from an actual cel used in the animated OAV series BUBBLEGUM CRASH! The characters Leon and Daily are captured in a photograph carrying out their investigations. Cel obtained from AnimEigo, character designs by Kenichi Sonoda, with artwork by Artland Studio. Cover design and layout by Tom Mitchell. The cover hints at the fact that we were not too impressed with the Crash! series. AS17G02.GIF - 718 x 711 x 256 colors A digital cel painting of Priss from Bubblegum Crash! using actual digitized cel production pencil art. The cell was painted by Tom Mitchell to the actual color specifications used in the show. So it is possible to see this same cel in the Bubblegum Crash! series. The cel art was provided by AnimEigo, and the artwork was done at Artland Studios. The sell was painted on a Macintosh computer using UltraPaint and JAG. This is also one of the few times you get to see Priss with a goofy expression on her face. Yes, even cool Priss can look stupid if she tries hard enough. (^_^) AS17G03.GIF - 691 x 684 x 2 colors The digitized pencil art used for the cell painting of Priss in file AS1702.GIF. Artwork done by Artland Studios. Character design by Kenichi Sonoda from the OAV series Bubblegum Crash! [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] SPECIAL REVIEW SECTION - Some thoughts on one of the most anticipated OAV series of the year... THOUGHTS & OPINION ON BUBBLEGUM CRASH! OAV SERIES AND BGM The Videos: BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 1 - ILLEGAL ARMY (POLYDOR LASERDISC - POLH-2007) BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 2 - GEO CLIMBERS (POLYDOR LASERDISC - POLH-2008) BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 3 - MELT DOWN (POLYDOR LASERDISC - POLH-2009) The Soundtrack Albums: BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 1 - ILLEGAL ARMY (POLYDOR COMPACTDISC - POCH-2022) BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 2 - GEO CLIMBERS (POLYDOR COMPACTDISC - POCH-2023) BUBBLEGUM CRASH! 3 - MELT DOWN (POLYDOR COMPACTDISC - POCH-2024) By Tom Mitchell As you readers of Anime Stuff know, the Stuff Staff loves Bubblegum Crisis. It has many elements that we love; tons of high-tech action, girls with guns, great BGM, lots of nasty villains and stylish animation and character designs. Sure, it also had it's share of problems. I think our biggest problem with the series was that although BGC produced several excellent episodes, it hardly advanced the story. Although it did manage to produce a superb spin-off prequel series in the A.D. POLICE OAV series which has run 3 episodes so far. The series was supposed to run 13 episodes, and so we were worried when it was cut short at 8. The series was pretty popular, but we thought it had run out of steam if they were not willing to sufficiently advance the story. We also had to suffer through the loss and return of Priss' voice actress, Kinuko Ohmori as she worked around contract problems with her recording company. It was soon announced however that Polydor had bought the rights to the show and it would be renamed Bubblegum Crash! The show would continue the story into another year of the Knight Sabers story. Us drooling BGC fans waited with great and cautious anticipation. It would be nice to see the show continued, but Polydor has a bad reputation for purchasing the rights to and then wrecking classic Artmic/AIC shows resently. But, the legendary Artland studio, the studio that worked on Macross, would be helping out with the production. What would be the outcome of all this for us fans? Well, the show has come and gone. And to tell you the truth, the results were not good. Pretty dang unsatisfying actually. This article is a log of what I think were the major good and bad points of the show. I will be pretty harsh, but remember, these are the ramblings of a dedicated fan. BAD POINT: POLYDOR We were really worried when Polidor got the rights to a new BGC series. In the year preceding Bubblegum Crash, they had also bought the rights to two other classic ARTMIC/AIC productions; Iczer-1 and Gal Force. Their series Iczer-3 was a huge flop, and they are still to this day beating the Gal Force story into the ground, even past the departure of character designer Kenichi Sonoda and most serious fan interest. BGC did not fare much better under Polydor's ownership, due to rushed scripts, conservative direction, and toned down, "cartoon"-like violence. BAD POINT: THE EPISODES GO DOWNHILL Certainly, ILLEGAL ARMY, the first episode of the 3 part series was the best of all. It was full of BGC-style action and humor. And it also had an interesting plot about the Knight Sabers going up against a mercenary turned high-tech thief under the sponsorship of an an unknown benefactor. Polydor had promised that the new BGCrash series would carry over some of the elements and characters that had been explored and introduced in the AD Police series. This episode certainly delivers buy showing us that boomer robots are everywhere, even working in restaurants as waitresses! Much to police detective Leon's consternation. Oh, and an interesting point that needed to be explored more was the fact that the Knight Sabers began to break up now that they had pretty much tamed the evil Genom corporation. How could they ever do that though? Quincy, the evil CEO is STILL OUT THERE, LADIES!!! Quincy is all but forgotten in this series. GEO CLIMBERS is a terrible episode. Terrible. The best thing about it is that it does manage to shed some light on Silia Stingray's past, and her fathers career. A new character, ADAMA, a new generation boomer is introduced. A funny team bond between Priss and ADAMA is made, but the goofy robot is trashed by the end. The violence is cheap, and the direction is choppy. Normally, Priss and the boomers can hit anything with a gun. In this episode they seem to have been taking lessons at GI Joe's No-Bloodshed PsychoSafe Shooting Range. What was the deal with the toned down violence level in the episode? The boomer villains are just plain goofy here. Oh, another highlight; The Knight Sabers play golf. (And to think they used to hang out at the paint-ball wargame range.) MELT-DOWN is a complete contrast on the voilence level to the previous episode. Priss should never be able to walk again by the end of show! My favorite Bubblegum Crisis villain, Largo, is re-introduced as the catalyst behind the revolting boomer labor. He is setting into action his plan to free the boomer race. Tokyo is going to be theirs after he floods the city with lethal radiation so humans can't live there. Unfortunately, he spends the entire show floating in a vat of liquid, and is never really let loose. Although he does have some really nice Knight Saber smashing boomers to do his physical work for him. I tell you, I was so frustrated with the series at this point that I took a certain perverse glee in seeing the Knight Sabers getting their hard-suited butts kicked. It was the best part of the show. Again, we learn a lot about Silia, but it was so rushed and slapped together, that none of these revelations were very exiting. The happy ending was a bit much...at least put Priss in a wheelchair or SOMETHING! GOOD POINT: A NEW VOICE ACTRESS Well, Ryoko Tachikawa turned out to be a good choice as the new voice actor for rock singer/Knight Saber Priss. Her rock singing was Priss-like enough to be convincing and entertaining in it's own right. We were really disappointed with her voice acting in the ILLEGAL ARMY episode. It was rather wooden and unemotional. But I think she got much better with the second and third episodes. If we can't have Kinuko Ohmori back, I'll settle for Ms. Tachikawa. Hey, it could have been far worse! BAD POINT: PRODUCTION QUALITY Overall, the animation quality and level of detail was lower in these episodes. Particularly were the character designs were concerned. Artland brought a sparce angular look to Kenichi Sonoda's designs that just did not do them justice. Although action sequences were good, and new stock footage was rather lavish at some points, the over-all quality was below par for BGC. Sound quality and engineering was very good though. GOOD POINT: AWESOME COMPUTER GRAPHICS & TITLE SEQUENCE Bubblegum Crisis had a new opening song and graphics sequence with every episode. Bubblegum Crash features a new standard title sequence that's very well animated. But everyone's jaw drops to the floor in awe when they see the opening computer animation of downtown MegaTokyo. This was FANTASTIC. And it didn't help that it made the animation following it look bad. BAD POINTS: DIRECTION & STORY The direction of the series was rushed. It tried to reveal too much ground that BGC was unwilling to cover with the Silia Stingray character. The story suffered trying to cram all this in. It all could have worked if the approach to it all was less linear and conservative. Bringing Largo back was not a bad idea either, but he should have not been hidden throughout the series. He's too good of a foil to waste. BAD POINT: TONI TAKEZAKI IS WASTED It was emphasized that more of Toni Takazaki's prequel BGC AD POLICE world would be integrated into the series. All we really got was the emphasis that the boomer robots had been further integrated as labor into society. More of AD Police's brooding characters and themes could have been used. And the series still does not answer what happens to Leon's first partner, Geena Malso from AD Police. (A minor point for BGC fans, I know.) GOOD POINT: GREAT BGM! Well, at least we got some great BGM CDs out of the deal! I really enjoyed the music for this show. It had a different sound with the emphasis on brooding electronic percussion and keyboards, but for me the sound did fit the feel of the BGC world. The songs were rather good too, and we were mercifully spared the sugar-pop filler of the later Bubblegum Crisis albums. My favorite BGCrash! CD is the first one with all of it's digitally percussive action tunes and rock theme songs, and the other two albums build on this. The CD for the second episode is very playful, while the third episode has a large dramatic sound to it. I highly recommend the BGM. It's as good as the best BGC BGM, but with a very different interpretation of the sound. BAD POINT: THE FUTURE IS TAINTED What will become of BGC now? I guess everything is in Polydor's fumbling hands. I think reaction was so bad to the series by fans that BGC's future is in doubt. Personally, I hope we don't see more, unless it's in the form of a good feature film or a story that would explore the origins of the Knight Sabers more and perhaps tie it's early history in with that of AD Police. What I really want to see is more of AD Police! This series and it's influential artist Toni Takezaki seems to have a much better idea of what BGC is all about than BGC's current owners. What does a loyal BGC fan have to say in closing about Bubblegum Crash? This show is only for the truly addicted. This is not a show you'd want to show to anyone other than yourself just to satisfy your own curiosity as a BGC fan. - Tom Mitchell ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THE BUBBLEGUM CRASH SOUNDTRACK CD'S by Albert Wong The majority of the BGM tracks on the BubbleGum Crash 1 CD consist of some rather slow, dreary synthesized tunes. We have "MegaTokyo 2034", the BGM used during the introduction piece from the videos. The opening theme is a very lively rock song, sung by Ryoko Tachikawa. Her singing voice a smoother than that of Kinuko Ohmori, but Ryoko lacks the presence or the volume that Kinuko had. There are times when the background singers almost sing louder than Ryoko does. The track "Sylia" is a nice quiet symphonic piece. "Fates" has a very sullen piano accompaniment. The image song "Catch Me" is a rather sugary pop song also by Ryoko. Nothing too exceptional here. The tracks "Knight Wing", "Battle Force", and "Rivals" are more fast paced action tunes. Each with their own style. Seemingly out of place, "Twilight" is a cool jazz piece. With some nice guitar and piano work. Ending the CD is another rock/pop song titled "Cool Eyes". The Geo Climbers opens with a hard driving rock song "Fly Away" by Ryoko Tachikawa. One of her better songs. "Adama: The 2nd Generation" is next. The track starts off as a quiet synthesizer piece. Halfway through the track, the tempo explodes into a funky, toe-tappin' pop tune. A really weird combination of musical styles. The third track "Iron Lizard", is a another synthesizer piece. Some interesting industrial sounds in this track. One of the best tracks on the CD. Immediately following, "Cyber Downtown" is another funky pop tune. Very similar to the latter parts of "Adama: The 2nd Generation". "Silent Memories" is a nice keyboard solo. The background track lends an airy/wispy sound. Another industrial piece, "Genocider" is a very suspenseful BGM track. It builds in intensity, but unfortunately ends abruptly. From "Genociders" to "Geo Climbers". A fast paced pop action tune. Track eight, titled "Underground Island" is another lively pop tune. An interesting background track and unlike some of the previous BGM track, this tunes is light and fun. Another good BGM piece. "Dark Master" is next with it's dark and foreboding sound. "Emotional Flight" is an very uplifting BGM track. Lastly, the ending vocal is a good soft rock ballad. The first track of the Melt Down CD is an image song by Ryoko Tachikawa. A lively pseudo-rock song. Nice, but nothing exceptional. Next in line, is "Brumm Bar". Starts off as a rather slow, dark BGM track but quickly turns into a more lively lighter sound. Track three "Organic Street", is another suspenseful synthesizer track. Though, it gets rather repetitive after awhile. "Runaway Machine" is a pretty good fast-paced action oriented tune. "Gigantic Shadows" starts off with some nice mellow, flowing synthesizer work. The background track picks up a more aggressive pace later in the track. Not as heavy some of the previous BGMs. Another image song "Precious Night", a nice rock ballad by none other than Ryoko Tachikawa. Her singing has improved a lot from the first BubbleGum Crash CD. "Mind Space" has a very quiet, very ethereal sound to it. An interesting heartbeat like background track. Track eight, aptly titled "Final Battle", is a lively action oriented BGM track. "Departure" is a nice airy synthesizer track. The last track is title "Over the Pressure". It's a refreshing foot-tapping pop tune. It's also a Knight Saber song with all four voice actresses singing a refrain from the song. - Albert Wong ////////////////////////////////ANIME LIFE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ INTERVIEW WITH ROE ADAMS OF ANIMEIGO By Tom Mitchell For this latest installment of Anime Life, we feature another anime fan who's life has been influenced by anime. But this person is very different from all other Japanese animation fans in America because he is one of the few people who have actually decided to start his own business based on it! Roe Adams already has a successful career as a computer game designer, but now he has started another venture, AnimEigo, which is now one of the leading subtitling companies translating Japanese animation videos for the American market. And it's probably the only company of the handful that exist in the industry to have built a carefully pristine record of quality when it comes to handling their product among fans. This interview with Roe was conducted via CompuServe E-Mail over several weeks as Roe's busy schedule would permit. It was hard to stop the interview because during the weeks that we conducted it, AnimEigo kept making new announcements about some major video licensing deals. This included the groundbreaking licensing deal to translate Urusei Yatsura, Japan's most popular and prolific animated TV/Movie/Original Anime Video series. Certainly the most prized and difficult to obtain title for anyone in the anime translation business. I hope you enjoy Roe's story and his insights into our hobby and his business. It is the story of a truly rare anime fan who has done what some of us have only dreamed about...made his hobby his life! >>><<< TM: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career? RA: Where to start??? High points: I am a computer game designer (Wizardry IV, Bard's Tale I (initial scenario),Ultima IV ), author (3 books), and computer journalist (over 250 reviews and articles in the past 11 years). My specialities are computer game design (I am a theorist who is mostly concerned about advancing the craft of computer game design thorough each of my designs), game psychology (WHY people play Role-Playing games), game mastering (was a tournament D&D GM in the late 70's), Japanese RPG computer games (currently the leading U.S. expert), and Virtual Reality (been heavily involved in the field since 1985). I just moved myself and my family over to Japan this spring and expect to be staying here two to five years. I have been collecting Japanese anime since 1974 and have over 400 films and OAVs in my collection. Talked Robert into founding AnimEigo in 1988 as a way to promote QUALITY Japanese anime in the U.S. via English subtitles (my idea rather than dubbing). Current: 1) Designing a huge (possibly TWO disk) CD-ROM RPG game here in Japan (staff of 28!) 2) Developing an international MODEM RPG game for a mere 10,000 players on-line SIMULTANEOUSLY. 3) Doing an American version of a new Japanese Super Famicom game 4) Writing a book in Japan on "The Theory of Computer Game Design" 5) Co-authoring another book (hardcore Science Fictiom book on VR) 6) Writing 6-7 monthly columns for COMPTIQ, the big Japanese computer gaming magazine 7) Editing two AnimEigo proucts a month with numerous contract negotiations weekly. Most projects take 8-12 meetings beofore "jelling". Oh yes and traveling back and forth to Japan NINE roundtrips this past year talking at conferences on both game design and VR. TM: Wow! I could think of a lot of things to ask you next, but I'd better stick to the subject! (^_^) I was first attracted to anime because it's a blend of many media that I'm interested in; animation, graphics, music, video, design, drama, etc. Is it this blend of media that first attracted you to anime? What pulled you into the hobby? RA: I have always loved animation. What got me FIRST interested in Japanese anime was Starblazers. In 1979 the complete TV series, all 3 or 4 years (don't remember which now) were shown on Boston TV on channel 56 IN ENGLISH, no less. I taped the entire series right off the air. What hooked me was the terrific action, good animation, outrageous battle scenes, neat music, and an interesting story. Rare to find all that in one product! When I looked around to see what else there was, I naturally ran right into a big wall. No one had heard anything about Japanese animation. Then at a Boskon convention in Boston, I saw a screening of Lum and I was captivated. TM: So, did you find your first big lead into the anime hobby at the Boskon convention? Who were the first group of folks to teach you more about the hobby? RA: Well, for about 5 years, I only got snatches of anime at various Worldcons or regional sf conventions except for Rob Fenelon (later of Minstrel Press and an old friend). He was the first Otaku I met. He introduced me to Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999. The one person to whom I am truely endebted is Masaki Takai. I met him after I moved from Boston to Ithaca, NY to finish my design work of Wizardry IV. One day I saw a flyer for the Cornell Japanimation (a new word to me at the time) Society and decided to attend. It turned out that the meeting was held in the President of the group's apartment (which he shared with 3 other people!). So that night about 15 people crowded into Misaki's place huddled around a small TV set while Misaki did very impressive simultaneous translations of the anime. This went on for around 5 hours, a fantastic array of anime I never knew existed. I was truely blown away. TM: The first anime that I ever saw was the Macross movie, and soon after Nausicaa, Arion, & Area 88. I got started with some classics, I guess. Do you remember what some of the first anime you guys watched that night at Masaki's place? It must have been an interesting line-up! RA: AH, does that really stick in my mind! He showed an episode of Dirty Pair, Orange Road, Maison Ikkiou, and finaly Laputa! None of these I had ever seen, I was hooked for life. I left with stars in my eyes. The next week I brought my son (who was eight at the time) and Misaki showed more DP, more OR, and then Vampire Hunter D. WOW!!! It was the first horror anime I had ever seen, and it was fantastic! TM: It sounds like you had a very typical introduction to anime. Lots of folks go to view this stuff and get bowled over by it. But you are hardly the typical anime fan. 99.9 percent of the fans hardly get beyond tape swapping. Very few fans give anything back to the hobby or the folks who create anime. And yet you have taken it so far as to start one of the first anime businesses in the country! What made you want to form your own Japanese animation video subtitling company? RA: Nothing typical about Masaki! AnimEigo began over my experience at Worldcon in Boston in 1989. One of my best friends in Japan, Mr. Yutaka Tama, who is famous in Japan in several fields, brought a large group of influental Japanese to Worldcon. Among them was Mr. Takanashi who was the producer and creative drive behind the Gunbuster series. Yutaka had sent me episodes 1 & 2 which I very much enjoyed, so I was delighted to meet Mr. Takanashi. When I learned that he had brought a copy of the unreleased final episode three, I arranged through my contacts with the Worldcon committee to get him a screening and a chance to talk to the anime fans. The screening and interview were a fantastic success, BUT Mr. Takanashi and the other 19 Japanese science-fiction authors/artists/fans including some other anime industry people stayed around to watch other screenings of Japanese anime. What they saw was 5th and 6th generation copies of varous anime, some with incredibly poor subtitles, others with bad dubbing, and one that was an incomprehensible (to them) parody. They were shocked- this trash (typical con fare those days) was what Americans watched when they watched Japanese anime??? I was VERY embarassed by all this, and spent the rest of Worldcon trying to appologize and explain. Afterwards I gave a lot of thought to the state of anime appreciation in the U.S. and came to several conclusions: 1) Anime pricing (at that time $125-150 per tape) was truely outrageous. No wonder fans bought and traded dubbed copies. 2) Fan translations were of haphazard quality and really hindered appreciaton of the films. 3) National distribtuion of anime was practically nonexistent. Often even I had to go through many layers of the fan network over a long period of time to secure a title, and then usually had to pay a huge price to get it! Why should this be necessary? 4) The titles that fans were seeing as current were in fact usually 5-10 years old. Getting to see Akira right after it was released blew me away with its "advances" in anime compared to other films I had seen. I spent many a long hour discussing these issues with Masaki and other anime people I knew around the country. Although everyone agreed that these 4 issues were lamentable and were in drastic need of correcting, no one could figure out a way of solving any of the problems. I came to realize that there was no exisitng fan/corporate vehicle that could be upgraded to handle these issues, and that if I REALLY wanted to do something, I would have to do it myself. But, although I had many anime contacts in Japan, I had no real financial resources to begin such an undertaking. So, I went to my old friend, Robert Woodhead, who was a many times millionare from his Wizardry royalties, and asked him if he would be interested in forming a company with me. He would put up the money and I would put up my contacts and indepth knowledge of Japanese anime. He asked me "what is anime?", so I began taking him over to Masaki's and started showing him the wonders of Japanese animation. Robert is an avid science fiction reader, so he was totally swept up by Akira also. In fact it was after seeing Akira on his giant screen TV with full blown stereo sound, that Robert first agreed to help me form AnimEigo. TM: I see. And of course at that point you needed a title to translate. What were some of your first choices, and how did you go about contacting the proper folks to license them? RA: Our first choices for subtitling were of course highly optimistic. Let's see, I wanted to do:Akira, Totoro, Laputa, Vampire Hunter D, Dirty Pair and all of Lum! Well, the first thing we discovered was that none of THOSE people wanted to talk with us!!! That was quite a surprise, as we naively thought they were dying to get their films distributed in the U.S. By this time though, all three of my RPG games had been translated into Japanese and were big hits in Japan. Through all the publicity surrounding their releases, I had met alot of people and Robert had met others from years of attending Wizardry fairs in Japan. So we began to contact large numbers of people to find someone to provide us an introduction into the Anime community. This started the snowball rolling. TM: And it would seem that Dirty Pair is still up for grabs, as far as I know! Can you give us an example of the process, and the cost of securing the rights to a show? RA: That is a tough question as it goes right to the heart of why we are able to sign titles better than other compnaies and HOW we have been able to open up the Japanese companies to even consider doing such deals. Much of it depends upon insights that I have gained from years of dealing with Japanese companies. If AnimEigo has anything like corporate secrets, that area is it. Sorry. TM: Ok, ok. I'll save that last question for 60 Minutes. I do have a question about your latest product, Kimagure Orange Road. I know a lot of us KOR fans have been kidding you on CompuServe for a while about AnimEigo subtitling the show. And then you drop the bombshell on us that you've actually gone out and got the rights to the thing! Had this been a title you've been interested in doing for a long time? And do you guys have the rights to all the animated KOR? (Pilot Film, TV series, OAV series, and the Movie?) RA: Kimagure Orange Road has been a long time favorite of mine ever since Masaki introduced me the its wondrous charms. I have all the shows and OAVs and the movie in my collection. For a long time I have been pushing for AnimEigo to go after this property, but kept being told it was not an "action" series, so "who would care about it?" After a long time of dragging out Anime fan polls that showed that Madoka was the NUMBER ONE female anime character among the fans, Robert started to watch some of the series and (amazingly enough) found it was REALLY GOOD. At this time we have an option on the TV series, but are going to wait for a while to see if it is commercially feasible to do in the current U.S. market. Maybe after the market grows a bit, we will be able to start bring over many tv series like this. So right now we will be releasing only the OAVs and the movie. TM: It's really funny how popular KOR is with fans, but you sure wouldn't know it from observing screenings at anime clubs. I was also quite surprised at its popularity. Speaking of KOR's popularity; Another very popular aspect of Orange Road is the soundtrack music. BGM collecting is a popular pastime among anime fans in general. Has Animeigo toyed with the idea of selling the soundtrack music to your videos? I know you're already dipping your toes in the BGM waters with the release of the Bubblegum Crisis music videos. Fans seem to be demanding the music from BGC after they are exposed to it. RA: I'll take a deep bow for that one! I have fought a long uphill battle to get music highlighted in AnimEigo products. First I got the lyrics subtitled on the animes, then I got liner notes included in our boxes, and after a huge tussle got us to license the BGC music videos. Only Michael House (our chief translator) and I seem to appreciate the music aspect of anime. I KNOW how important music is to anime, because I am one of those fans who is attacted to Japanese anime because of the twin lure of anime quality and terrific music. However, we are staying a video company, so we wouldn't be releasing the music CDs. BTW, MY favorite anime soundtrack is AKIRA, followed by Hurricane from BGC 1. TM: Here's a question I've meant to ask you for a while. As your videos get more popular and gain more exposure, one day you're going to have a run-in with this nation's artistic and fundamentalist censorship movements over the contents of these videos. One day, the kid of some Bible-thumper is going to bring a video of BGC, Madox, or Riding Bean home, and the news media will latch onto this. Have you folks thought of how you are going to deal with such problems? I remember one such news spot a couple years ago that focused on the violence in manga, and they had some guy on there saying that he had just seen an animated film that featured the rape of a young white girl buy a big black man. Guess what film he "saw"? Project A-Ko. Things like this will happen, you know. As a fan, it is my biggest fear about anime getting more popular. RA: The issue of censorship is a constant battle I fight here. I realize that our dream of spreading an appreciation of Japanese anime among the general population is very fragile. If some headline hungry politican, perhaps one of the new breed of Japan Bashers, decides to pillor us, it would not be too hard. And this depite the fact that at the very worst our films would be rated PG-13. AnimEigo has turned down films like Fist of the North Star or Wandering Kid because of excessive violence or gross sexual content. (Personally I enjoyed Fist but find Kid disgusting.) Besides seeking films to license that are important to U.S. fans, we have tried to walk that fine line between neat fun and material inflamatory to certain sectors of America. We would never consider editing an anime as we have always strived to convey the highest purity of Japanese anime, so we strive to carefully select anime. TM: Tell us a little about your upcoming first Laserdisc release, the OAV series Vampire Princess Miyu. I thought it was very commendable of AnimEigo to release the four episodes on a single CLV disc at a price that's an extreme bargain for fans. I know that that cost of a small laserdisc release was prohibitive, and that you were polling fans to get an idea of how many you could expect to sell. Are you taking a chance with this release to test the waters, or was there really that much positive feedback from fans? RA: Well, yes, we are actually taking a chance here. Robert really wants to see us branch out into LDs, so we are testing the waters with Miyu. If it does even reasonably well, maybe we will put KOR on LD. LDs are so much cheaper to produce and market. Did you know that in Japan new anime on video tape run 12,500 yen while the same program on LD is only 7,500 yen! TM: Yes, cheaper to produce and market in Japan. That's what's fueled the interest by serious anime collectors to get into Laserdiscs. But what about here in the U.S.? Have you folks found LD's to be far more expensive than tape to produce? RA: That is somewhat of a difficult question. It really is a matter of the economics of scale. IF we could produce large quantities of LDs then LDs are cheaper. However, since the LD market for subtitled anime is unexplored as of yet, we can only afford to make small runs which are quite a bit expensive on a per copy basis. Also there are practically no video rental stores that rent LDs, so that segment of the market is lost to us regarding LDs. If we get enough collectors to purchase our LD version so that we at least break even, then we will continue to offer titles on both media. TM: I hope the Vampire Princess Miyu LD experiment goes well for AnimEigo. Certainly, having anime on LD at affordable prices will be quite a boon to anime fandom here in the U.S. I personally think it will pay off for you. Anime on laserdisc is only the next logical extension of the quality presentation philosophy that AnimEigo has offered fans so far. I have one last question for you to conclude this interview, and then I will open the page to you for any comments you'd like to make to our readers. My personal discovery and enjoyment of anime has brought many enriching and sometimes profound discoveries to my life. It has brought me enhanced appreciation of art and music, made me take my own talents seriously, taught me a new language, and made me many interesting and diverse acquaintances among people whom I would not have met otherwise. All wrapped in wonderful entertainment. You've brought more to anime than the average fan by forming AnimEigo, which I'm sure is a huge personal investment in time, trouble, and money. What has anime brought to you? RA: uhhhh...what HE (pointing to you) said! That was beautifully and compactly stated Tom, Bravo! It would be exceedingly difficult to elaborate on those fine words. The only other thing I feel about anime is it serving as a cultural bridge between Japan and America. In these highly charged politcal times, that means a lot! That was the prime reason (not the money, Robert hardly needs to acquire more!) for he and I founding AnimEigo. Such a beautiful artform with incredible humor and interesting storylines, all being largely ignored and unappreciated in the U.S. We hope to change that and with the help and support of anime fans everywhere, we will succeed in lighting up Japanese anime to a wide audience. TM: You certainly seem serious about this with the news of the acquisition of the rights to Urusei Yatsura. Only the most popular, and shrewdly marketed anime in Japanese history. I understand that Kitty is not the easiest company in the industry to deal with, and they are very protective of their crown jewel, Urusei Yatsura. Did AnimEigo have to work very long to crack this nut? Or did Kitty see what you've been doing, liked what they saw, and opened the door to you? RA: Both acutally. Ever since we formed the company, we have tried to licence UY. Like everone else, we bounced politely but firmly. Kitty would not even consider UY at any price. Perhaps that was just as well as AnimEigo couldn't afford any huge price! I don't know if your aware, but the only reason that no one has gotten the Dirty Pair licence yet is that Sunrise is asking a VERY firm ONE MILLION DOLLARS for the licence! Robert had talked with Kitty numerous times about doing business, but to no avail. Finally I went to see Kitty with Robert and after they again said no to our busines offer, I discussed in great detail AnimEigo's dream for expanding the appreciation of anime in the U.S. over the next five years. They became very thoughtful and said they would think about it. A couple of weeks went by and we got a call from Kitty saying that they would like to share in our dream and would we please send them a contract! Doing UY will be our greatest challenge to date. For not only are we releasing the movies and OAVs, but we are also going to try and release all 196 tv episodes! The TV shows are going to marketed as four 1/2 hour episodes on a tape. We will produce the first 4 TV tapes and see what kind of response we get for them. Hopefully, it will be enough to warrant full series release. We will premier this series at the 50th anniversary Worldcon in Orlando the beginning of September. It setting up to be a big anime event with panels and neat guest speakers. TM: Wow! Thank you for telling us about the price for Dirty Pair. Gee, for that much, you could almost genetically engineer your own Mugi! Perhaps AnimEigo's record in the marketplace so far will help to convince them to think of something a little more realistic for the price. You can rest assured that I won't bug you about Dirty Pair for a while. In capturing UY, it would seem that your persistence and presentation with Kitty paid off. I have often heard it said from people doing business in Japan that Japanese are often very cautious, and not to take rejection as a set answer. Your offer is being considered, and that a "no" from a company may just be a "maybe" and their way of taking some time out to think. This certainly seemed the case for AnimEigo. Now that you have captured probably THE most important title, and one that will probably keep you folks busy for a while, are you still going to aggressively pursue rights to shows, or concentrate on selling what you have now? RA: Yes, we are continuing to discuss new projects with the studios an d animation houses. We just recently signed one of my personal favorites Otaku no Video 1982 &1985. We wouldn't sell many copies, but they are probaly the greatest FAN anime ever done, and I wanted the U.S. fans to share in these delightful films. they will certainly become the mainstay of every convention screening program! We are also close on obtaining the rights to 4 or 5 other titles. Sorry, as usual can't say what they are yet. When they are signed, I'll let Anime Stuff know first. This has been a really fun intereview. Thanks Tom for making it so enjoyable. //////////////////////////////////VIDEO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD - MUSIC VERSION (ON LASERDISC FROM TOHO VIDEO, TTL-2125, STEREO DIGITAL SOUND, 34 MINUTES, 6,613 YEN) Well, as if you didn't know from past issues of Anime Stuff, I'm a big Kimagure Orange Road fan. I enjoy the TV show a lot, and usually most of my complaints with the show have had to do with the marketing and presentation of the show on video. Yes, this is another one of those reviews. There is a lot wrong with the Kimagure Orange Road Music Version music video album. Perhaps its only saving grace is wonderful KOR music. As a fan, I've got lot's of beefs with this one. Let's see...First of all, when was the last time you ever saw a music video album on Laserdisc that didn't have any chapter stops for the songs? That's right, the album has 12 of Kimagure Orange Road's best songs, but you can forget trying to find any of them quickly. There's not a single chapter stop on the disc! This disc has all the interactivity of a videotape! Shame on TOHO Video for being so lazy. Particularly since they had been doing such a fine job with all the other KOR releases they've done. The video production on the disc is CHEAP! It has a slapped together feel, and uses unimaginative video effects. I've seen fan groups do more with much less. The subject matter is also strangely tilted. While the video attempts to emphasize the love triangle between the characters Kyosuke, Madoka, and Hikaru, it barely even features Hikaru at all and focuses most of the time on Madoka! Hmmph! Despite all of the problems I had with the direction and production of this music video disc, I still managed to enjoy it. Why? Because the music is GREAT. KOR is well known for its excellent soundtrack music, and this video brings together the best songs from the TV show. I'd recommend this disc to anyone who wants a good selection of songs from the show, but it's too bad the video portion of this music video was so neglected. - Tom Mitchell BI-SHOT SOFT ORIGINAL CATALOG SPECIAL (ON LASERDISC FROM DATAM/POLYSTAR, PSLX-1002, 72 MINUTES, 6,000 YEN) If you like computer graphics, video games, anime & manga art, and Cream Lemon-style soft porn anime, have I got a laserdisc for you! The Bi-Shot Soft Original Catalog is just that; a catalog of Japanese soft porn computer games that feature wonderful anime-style computer graphics. Possibly one of the more unusual laserdisc finds. If you've ever read an issue of Lemon People, you've probably wondered what the computer games they review in the soft-port manga magazine are like. Well, this laserdisc will answer your questions. The disc features 72 minutes of extensive animation and screenshots from literally dozens of Japanese soft-porn computer games! The range of games is pretty much limited to TONS of RPGs set in dungeons and High Schools, and few strip mah-jong and card games thrown in. There are even a few interesting titles that anime fans will recognize; a couple games are licensed from Wondering Kid and Top-O-Narae GUNBUSTER! For computer game fans, this is pretty fascinating stuff. This video is a neat glimpse into the state of personal computer graphics and games in Japan. For anime/manga art fans, the graphics and animation used on the computers are really neat! Stunning colors, plus funny and innovative use of limited computer animation. You can see were a lot of animation artists and students have been moonlighting. If you're really into Japanese visual media, I highly recommend exploring this laserdisc. Although the games shown on this video catalog are mainly in a pornographic genre, it is quite a cultural artifact. You certainly wouldn't see computer games like this in the United States. But then, you don't see any animation like Japanese anime in the United States either, so I guess it only follows that computer games in Japan should show the same freedom of graphic design and subject matter. - Tom Mitchell SILENT MOBIUS - THE MOTION PICTURE (ON LASERDISC FROM PIONEER LDC, PILA-1087, 57 MIN, COLOR, STEREO/DIGITAL, Y7,004) At long last, the motion picture version of the popular Silent Mobius manga has been released. And it was certainly worth the wait. The film is colorful, full of action, and properly animated for it's subject matter and length. Personally, I always felt that the Silent Mobius manga would make a better movie than a manga anyway, and I certainly was pleased with the results. What's this movie about? Well, Silent Mobius is set in Tokyo in the year 2036. If you could put Blade Runner, Gal Force, and Super Natural Beast City into a blender, what you'd pour out would be Silent Mobius. The manga was a shameless Blade Runner rip-of...er...homage with two extra elements thrown in: Girls-with-Guns, and weird, really pissed off demons. The story is basically about a group of specialized women in an exclusive branch of the Tokyo police force. The women in this department posses paraphysical or parapsychological abilities. The group has been assembled to battle the Luciferhawk, an ancient group of demons once banished to their own dimension by ancient wizards. The women are just a modern urban incarnation of this battle as the demons are trying once again to enter our world. Now it's a battle of technology vs. magic with enchanted swords and black-hole firing sidearms. All of this was OK in the manga, but its visual qualities really cried out for colorful anime action treatment as apposed to the manga's static black and white pages. Well, Silent Mobius has received the treatment in this film that it needed, and fans of the manga and new comers to the Silent Mobius world are in for a good time. Not only is it Silent Mobius animated, but the story is also a prequel to the events in the manga! The story of the film deals with the recruitment of Katsumi Liqueur. She doesn't know that she's the member of an ancient family of Japanese wizards, and she was to be told this when her parents thought she was ready. The process is sped up a few years when, while going to visit her mother in the hospital, she walks right into a secret Attacked Mystification Police Department operation. The demons recognize her lineage, and the police have plans to recruit her. And the story continues from there. I highly recommend the film. The flashback prequel story is standard but given a unique treatment. And the whole thing just looks and sounds cool! I'm looking forward to seeing what this Summer's Silent Mobius 2 film is like. I just hope we don't have to wait a whole year to see it. - Tom Mitchell //////////////////////////////////AUDIO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ CITY HUNTER -ORIGINAL ANIMATION SOUNDTRACK (ON COMPACT DISC FROM EPIC/SONY RECORDS, 32-8H-119, 3,200 YEN) This disc is the first volume of soundtrack music from the long-running anime TV private detective drama/comedy series City Hunter. It features the musical highlights from the first half of the show's first season. And like the show itself, the CD is a lively mix of several things, silly & snazzy Jazz instrumentals, romantic pop vocals, and driving rock songs. The variety is not the only thing that fuels this excellent disc. Superb instrumentals, and good lyrics also fill the album. It is wonderfully recorded and engineered. And just plain fun to listen to on top of that! I've had trouble getting this one out of my disc player. The instrumentals feature careful, lively, and sometimes funny contemporary jazz melodies that tell the story of the action seen by the shows detective hero, while the songs, mostly in English, feature smartly composed lyrics that range from witty to romantic. And then, mid point on the disc, we get a driving rock visit from popular Japanese rock group TM Network singing their hit theme from the show, GET WILD. This is the perfect soundtrack album. It features music that captures the spirit and atmosphere of the show it represents, and yet is of such high quality that it can stand on its own as a very enjoyable album. I highly recommend this fun disc! - Tom Mitchell KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD - CD COLLECTION SPECIAL BGM (VICTOR, VDR-171, 3,008 YEN) This Kimagure Orange Road CD has been a bit of a mystery for U.S. fans. But with the release last year of the KOR Jump Special (KOR pilot) episode, we now know that most of the music on this disc is from that special. Until then, many of us had just thought that this was an image music album based on the manga. For that reason, I almost passed on getting this disc. I'm now very glad I didn't. It's one of the best KOR CD's. We were only partially right in thinking of this disc as an image music album. It is actually a combination of two 1986 albums; A KOR image album, and an album of music used for the Kimagure Orange Road pilot episode. Hence, the name "special collection". Just like the pilot episode, this album is a glimpse into what KOR might have been in terms of the sound of its music. It is a different musical interpretation of the Kimagure Orange Road atmosphere, and it is very good. The CD consists of 20 tracks featuring both original songs and BGM. A wide variety of sounds are featured on the disc, ranging from snappy pop and jazz, to wonderfully moody acoustic and synthesized pieces. All of the music is superbly recorded and scored. This is a very lively and engrossing BGM collection. Where it is different than the music that ended up being used for the 1987 TV series is that it is more open, bouncy, less moody. The pop songs are more cheerful sounding, and the instrumentals feature a simpler use of acoustic instruments such as piano and guitars, and a greater atmospheric use of digital instruments. Even digital sampling is used in some pieces; keep your ears open for the wonderful use of the sound of a seagull used as a metronome in one track. The music is both inventive and witty. I highly recommend this album. It is hard to find, but if you are a KOR fan, it is well worth the search or the trouble to special order it. This one album offers a musical glimpse of everything that is Kimagure Orange Road. (Also note that the CD's graphics also feature some wonderful Akemi Takada KOR artwork that I have not seen published anywhere else.) - Tom Mitchell MACROSS - THE COMPLETE (BGM COLLECTION ON COMPACT DISC, VICTOR VICL-40031-33, 7,500 YEN) Sure, you've seen this fat little box of CDs on the shelf. And you're a Macross fan. But it's $75, and you say to yourself that you have most of this stuff anyway. Should you, or shouldn't you? If you're a true Macross fan, of course you'll go for it and purchase the Macross - The Complete BGM set. And you'll be glad you did. MACROSS - THE COMPLETE is a boxed CD set that features ALL the music recorded for the Macross TV series, and the Macross Movie. Ok, so you've heard all this before in the Macross Vocal Collection and the Macross BGM Collection albums that have been standards for Macross collectors for years. Well, this collection makes those two look dated and whimpy by also throwing in music from the Flashback 2012 OAV, long versions of all the songs, karaoke (no vocal) versions of songs, TONS of never before released music (only some of which was featured on the very rare Macross Maniac Library LP), and music used in Macross that was also featured on the Miss DJ album. Whew! Nearly four hours of music! In addition, this is not only a complete collection of BGM, it is also a newly remastered one. The BGM COLLECTION and SONG COLLECTION CDs were nice in their day, but when they were made, they were mastered in the days when the CD was new, and mastered from master tapes that were used for the LPs. The sound from them was rather soft, somewhat rounded and blunt, but sonically dull. This new collection gets its sound from state-of-the-art CD mastering from new analog to digital masters. The sound has incredible punch, and a new high and low-end depth that reveals wonderful new detail! The older CD's can't even touch this collection for sound quality. However, there is even more that's special about this collection. The collection is also wrapped in a wonderful cardboard slipcase that houses the white gatefold CD jewelbox. Both feature covers sporting magnificent new Haruhiko Mikimoto art featuring the cast of the show. Inside the slip cover and the CD jewelbox are two books. The larger book is a memorial collection of photos and drawings from Macross with a focus on character Lynn Minmay and her songs. The second book inside the CD jewelbox features extensive notes on all the BGM and photos and interviews with major Macross staff/cast members. The discs themselves are each a different color and feature custom label art for the set. This magnificent boxed CD set is certainly one of the most significant collectors items released for anime BGM fans.Truly a must have item commemorating one of the most important anime soundtracks. Don't hesitate to get it when you see it on the shelf! - Tom Mitchell ////////////////////////////BOOKS AND MAGAZINES\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM - ILLUSTRATION WORLD (BOOK, PUBLISHED BY SUNRISE, ISBN4-943966-93-4) This hardcover, 143 paged book contains original artworks from the entire Mobile Suit Gundam series of movies, original videos and the television shows. A nice high-quality glossy paper is used extensively throughout the book and should last for a long time. The following paragraphs will attempt to hilight some of the artworks. First of all, the artworks are arranged by chronological order. That is to say, all the Mobile Suit Gundam art comes first, then the Zeta Gundam art and so on. Most of the character artworks are done by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (who usually signs his works 'Yas'). The illustrations of the various mobile suits that appeared in the TV show are done by Kunio Okawara. Surprisingly, there are a few artworks done by Haruhiko Mikimoto (who usually signs his works 'HAL'). HAL is usually known for his works in the Macross TV series and as the character designer for Eve in the Megazone 23 OAV series. It's interesting to see the Gundam characters drawn in Mikimoto's distinctive style. There are a few brand new images. One was the used for the LD covers of the recent re-release of the three Mobile Suit Gundam movies. The next section is devoted to the artworks of the Zeta Gundam television series. Some nice images from Yas, Mikimoto and Hiroyuki Kitazuma. There is the nude of Four Marasume, from the poster that appeared in Newtype Magazine, display prominently on two pages. ^_^ Four in a summer dress with shopping bag, in the park. Camille Vidan and Fa sitting on a park bench. Amuro Rey and Bellotica getting cozy. All of these were done by Hiroyuki Kitazuma in watercolor. It's hard to picture these characters being the center of the war between the Anti-Earth-United-Goverment (AEUG) and the corrupt Earth Federation. The last artwork in this section is a rather hilarious picture with 'super-deformed' characters. Bright Noah catching some rays, Yazan scarfing down some ramen. Great stuff. ^_^ The first picture in the Double Zeta section, is an airbrush mecha drawing of the Double Zeta Gundam and Core Fighter by K. Kondo. Interestingly, the picture is dated 3-9-90, way after Double Zeta Gundam was off the air. Most of the other artworks are from the ZZ Gundam posters. The next chapter is a small collection of the promotional art from the Gundam movie: Char's Counterattack. There is a nice shot of the Nu Gundam complete with the Fin Funnels. This art appeared as a poster in Newtype magazine. Also included are the art used for the LD covers of the original and re-pressed laserdiscs. The original pressing of the laserdisc had a picture of Amuro Ray floating above the Nu Gundam with Hathaway Noah in a robot pod. The new laserdisc pressing has a picture of Amuro Ray in a space helmet with Char Aznable and the asteroid Axcis plummeting toward the Earth. Into the Gundam 0080 art collection. As expected most of the character artworks are done by Haruhiko Mikimoto. Haruhiko Mikomoto was the character designer for the video series. A nice collection of HAL's watercolor art. Also included are the images from the two BGM CDs. Nearing the end of the book (and my ramblings) is the collection of art from the latest Gundam movie, Gundam Formula 91. A K. Kondo airbrush of the Gundam F91 dogfighting with the Crossbone Vanguard. A headshot of the F91 done in oil. The art from the BGM CD is also included. There is even a section on the latest Gundam OAV series, Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories. Most of the images are from the LD cover illustrations. Anavel Gato standing proudly on 'his' Gundam, Nina Purpleton leaning on the foot of the Gundam. The last section, titled 'Mobile Suit Gundam: The World' is a collection of miscellaneous artworks from no particular TV series, OAV or movie. The first image is a two page airbrush of all the Gundams by K. Kondo. The slightly 'super-deformed' artworks from the SD Gundam BGM CDs and the Gundam CD singles are also present. In closing, as the cliche' goes "A picture is worth a thousand words", what you have just read is my attempt to describe the wonderful art in this book with mere words. If you can only buy just one Gundam artbook, this is the book of choice. - Albert Wong BUBBLEGUM CRISIS : THE STORY OF THE KNIGHT SABERS 2032-2033 BOOK (PUBLISHED BY BANDAI - B-CLUB, ISBN4-89189-169-6, 2,800 YEN) The book starts off with a series of color sections on the first four BGC OAVs. There are original artworks by artists Hideki Kakinuma, Shinji Armaki, Ley Yumeno and others. The next chapter is an interview session with the voice actresses behind the Knight Sabers. Kinuko Oomori, Akiko Hiramatsu, Michie Tomizawa, and Ryoko Sakakibara. There is also a MegaTokyo city map with locations such as the USSD building, AD Police Headquarters, Hot Legs nightclub highlighted. I wonder where these locations are in modern day Tokyo? The next section is the character design sheets from the series. Black and white sketches of the Knight Sabers and Genom officers, along with sketches of the different Genom Towers. The designs for the Knight Saber's improved hardsuits are conspicuously missing though. Also included are the different buma designs, from you generic buma to the Mason bumas from BGC 6. For the mecha fans, the AD Police equipment and the Knight Sabers Motoslaves sketches are also included. The BubbleGum Crisis Memories section has an interesting collection of black and white sketches from Ken-ichi Sonoda and other artists. There is also a color foldout poster by Tony Takezaki. The poster shows Priss getting her butt armor shot off by a buma as the entire AD Police look on in awe. ^_^ Next up, a section with cover art from the various BGC video, CDs. A section with garage kit models of the Knight Sabers, Vision and Motoslave from BGC 1 & 4. Some of these are marked 'Not For Sale'. The Variety pages shows the other BGC merchandise, such as notebooks, manga, computer game. There are even full scale Knight Sabers helmets and a full-scale Priss' and Nene hardsuit. Too bad these are also marked 'Not for sale'. In the Correlation pages, you can see who hates who, and who likes who in the BGC universe. It would seem that Makie has a thing for Nene. ^_^ The book continues with a film comic of BGC 5-8. With more original artworks by Shinji Armaki, Masami Oobari, Satoshi Urushibara, and Ken-ichi Sonoda. More black and white sketches of the supporting cast of the BGC series. Brian J. Gibson, and Raven from BGC 4. The Griffon sports car and Priss' dragbike "The Highway Star", also from BGC 4. Silvie, From BGC 5, along with the D-D mecha. There is also an interesting section of pre-production sketches of the Knight Sabers. At one time, Priss looked alot like Kei from the Dirty Pair series. Storyboards from BGC 7 & 8. There is also an expansive index of all the items used in the BGC video series. So, you can find out what item appeared in what episode. This book is one of the most complete references for the BubbleGum Crisis video series. The book itself comes out to around 158 pages with mostly coated paper for most of the black and white pages, and glossy paper for the color film comics and foldout poster. - Albert Wong B-CLUB SPECIAL: BUBBLEGUM CRASH! (Published by Bandai, ISBN4-89189-214-5 C0276, 1800 Yen) This book is a companion volume to Bandai's earlier BUBBLEGUM CRISIS book. Even though this 80 page art book is slender and based on the somewhat disappointing "Bubblegum Crash!" OAV series, it is an excellent reference that is stuffed full of new artwork by major BGC artists, and features lots of other interesting data for diehard BGC fans. The book is slim, but every portion of it is jam packed with splashy artwork, articles, and story synopsis' of the new Bubblegum Crash OAV series. For fans though, the important features are a treasure trove of original artwork, including 3 stunning paintings by AD Police artist Tony Takezaki. Theres also an original short story with some excellent original art, some silly manga, again by Takezaki. (Who has a wonderful talent for spoofing BGC.) And all the new hardware designs from the show are also featured. Supplementary sections include extensive interviews with the creators of Crisis/Crash! and the voice actors, plus a fascinating section explaining how the stunning MegaTokyo computer graphics opening for the show were created. The book even hints at a continuation of the story. (With a big question mark, of course.) Even if you didn't like what was done with BGC in Bubblegum Crash!, I highly recommend this artbook to any fans of the show. There's too much new, interesting, and original stuff in here to pass it up! - Tom Mitchell GUN SMITH CATS - VOLUME 1 (Manga by Kenichi Sonoda, published by Afternoon KC, ISBN4-06-314039-3, 500 YEN) With his new manga, Kenichi Sonoda, king of the Girls-with-Guns anime genre, has finally done it; he's created the perfect distillation of the Girls-with-Guns theme by creating a manga story that is about nothing but girls with guns. This story is a sequel of sorts to Sonoda's Riding Bean, and is set in the same story universe; a modern day Chicago where slick vintage late-'60s muscle cars roam the streets. Although the author gives no indication of this story being a sequel or prequel to Riding Bean, that story's lead character, Bean Bandit, makes a quick appearance, and the story centers on Bean's former/future partner Rally Vincent. (For some whimsical reason sporting brunette hair, and dark skin, rather than the blond and light complexion she had in the Riding Bean anime.) Rally is a 19 year old gun expert working as the owner of a gunshop and shooting range called Gun Smith Cat. Not only does she know everything about fire arms, but she's crack shot with skills that would make Golgo 13 and James Bond run for cover. But she doesn't just sit in the shop all day, as she's also a part time bounty hunter who's skills are greatly appreciated by the Chicago police. Her partner is a 17 year old girl named May Hopkins. Where Rally has a fixation with guns and vintage muscle cars, May matches it with an enthusiasm and expertise with guns and sex! May also has one other feature: she's very short (4'10"), thus earning her the nickname MiniMay. (A pun for us Macross fans?) Gee, what ever happened to the days when girls loved horses and Barbie? That's basically what the manga is about. Girls & Guns. This is sure to be a hit anime, and I have no doubt that it should be animated. It's got everything that appeals to the base instincts in us guys, plus it features Sonoda's glorious sense for action scenes. It is wonderfully drawn, although I must say Sonoda seems to have quite an eye for cars and guns these days. They look even sexier than the girls. You know, one thing I like about Japanese manga is that you always learn a LOT about something the author is interested in. And in great detail. Sonoda loves things American. To see Chicago through his eyes is a delight. It's a romantically gritty view of the town. Particularly since the author has never been there yet. As always, Sodnoda loves girls. And draws them with a style and eye for girl-stuff that makes him a unique artist of the anime female aesthetic. And he's always loved guns, as seen in his other Girl-N-Guns efforts as Gal Force and Bubblegum Crisis. This time you learn a lot about modern side-arms. And, as in Riding Bean, gas-guzzling, gut rumbling, barely street legal muscle cars. This manga is a great time! If you're craving a no-holds-barred violent but light hearted, action-filled good time with no socially redeeming value, and a strange view of our largest midwestern city, you'll find it in Kenichi Sonoda's Gun Smith Cats. Gas the Ford, and pass the ammunition! - Tom Mitchell ANIME SHOWER SPECIAL #2 (PUBLISHED BY IANUS PUBLICATIONS, ISSN 1183-6873, $3.25) From Ianus publications, publishers of Protoculture Addicts, comes the second issue of of the Anime Shower Special. The Anime Shower Special is a black and white collection of scenes from anime and several manga featuring various characters taking showers and doing other bathroom related tasks. There are two problems with this publication. The first problem is the editorial that kicks off the book. Apparently the first issue of this publication caused a lot of controversy among readers over its exploitation of females. The editors of the book promise to come up with a few more males in this issue, and then ramble endlessly about the how these pictures are not exploitation, but art! The body beautiful and all that. It's pretty silly, since all the art was intended to be titillating in the first place, and that the majority of women in the pictures are meant to stimulate males, the majority of readers. I wish the editors would just confess and say that, hey, we're all males and we really don't mind seeing beautiful women naked. Rather than rambling on about the female aesthetic. The second problem with the publication is the print quality. The reproductions of the art work just are not very good most of the time. This is obviously a limitation of the inexpensive publishing system that was used to past together this book. For these two reasons alone, I really wouldn't recommend this book. But this publication does have one saving grace; some really great original artwork buy such anime influenced fan artists like Ben Dunn, Jason Waltrip, Adam Warren, Tim Eldred, and Robert DeJesus. All of them are HOT! And better print quality would really show their talents off. For future issues, I say less cut and paste from anime and manga that we've all seen, and more of the wonderful fan art! - Tom Mitchell PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS - ISSUE 16 JAN/FEB (MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY IANUS PUBLICATIONS, $3.50, 35 PAGES) With the excellent issue 16, Canada's first major anime publication takes a big leap in maturity as it grows away from its Robotech roots. This issue features several new changes, including a new larger size and an improvement in overall graphic design. The magazine has been trying hard at dropping it's Robotech only image and becoming a good general interest anime magazine. And with this issue, they have finally succeeded, although the magazine still maintains it's fan roots thanks to generous portions of fan letters and art submissions. As Protoculture Addicts has been growing, so has the quality of information in it as its editors get better plugged into the anime scene. This issue is outstanding, particularly thanks to two excellent main features; a continuation of an in-depth and enlightening interview with Ninja High-School creator Ben Dunn, and a wonderfully detailed overview and synopsis of the OAV series Record of Lodoss War. Add this magazine to the list of English language anime magazines to check out. It has finally grown into something for serious anime fans to look at. The magazine should also be congratulated on the fact that although it's not the oldest English anime magazine around, it is the certainly the one published most often! - Tom Mitchell CRYING FREEMAN VOL. 4, ISSUE 4 (ENGLISH MANGA TRANSLATION PUBLISHED BY VIZ, $2.75) What's the deal with this issue of Crying Freeman? They changed the format of the manga translation once again! This time though, the change brings both good and bad news. The good news is that the manga is once again presented in its original black and white form. Many readers complained, as I did in my last review on the comic, that the coloring was nice, but it was too dark and it obscured the great pen and ink artwork which was never designed for color in the first place. Now Freeman is visible in all of its original detail. But there's bad news; this conversion back to the black & white format must have been done not because of the response of the readers, but rather as a cost cutting move. Witness the cover of the issue. Gone is the nice heavy-stock paper, high quality square-bound cover! Now the thing is just a stapled issue, and the page count has dropped compared to the original B&W issues. Sure, this saves on the cost of the issue, but it also gives us less to read, and the issues no longer Match the rest of the series. Perhaps VIZ figured they would drop the nice format of the single issues, since they are making compiled books of Crying Freeman anyway? Oh, and one more gripe; what's the deal with adding the mustache to the Larry Buck character? Sure the artists modeled him after actor Ernest Borgnine, but was this done to cover his distinctive features for some legal reason? Well, whatever the reason, they forgot the mustache in one panel. (snicker) About the story itself, the action is as wild and goofy as ever as Freeman and is "sister" take on the ex-Green Barrettes of the Kidnappers Organization. They're setting up some fun situations here, and seeing them resolved in the usual gratuitous Freeman style should be a lot of fun. Just as long as VIZ doesn't decide to print future issues on toilet paper, or something. - Tom Mitchell /////////////////////////////ANIME NEWS FLASH\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ For Immediate Release August 15, 1992 ANIMEIGO ANNOUNCES THE LASERDISC RELEASE OF THE JAPANESE CYBERPUNK SF CLASSIC "BUBBLEGUM CRISIS" AnimEigo, Inc., the leading releasor of subtitled Japanese Animation ("Anime") in the United States, today announced that it will be releasing its hit animated SF series, "Bubblegum Crisis," on LaserDisc. According to Janice Hindle, U.S. General Manager of AnimEigo, "The success of our first LaserDisc, "Vampire Princess Miyu," not to mention the huge number of requests by fans for a Crisis LaserDisc set, has convinced us that a substantial and growing market for subtitled Japanese animation on LaserDisc exists, and we expect to release more and more of our titles in the format." All 8 episodes, along with the two Bubblegum Crisis Music-Video albums, will be released on 4 CLV LaserDiscs. The first disc, containing the first three Bubblegum Crisis episodes, will be released November 15th, 1992, and subsequent discs will be released monthly. The discs have a suggested retail price of $64.95 each In addition, the entire series of four discs can be ordered on an advance subscription basis for $220.00.(S&H INC) Furthermore, if you have already purchased one or more Bubblegum Crisis episodes on VHS tape, you can "upgrade" to LaserDisc by mailing in the packaging wraps from the episodes you already own along with your order for the subscription. For each wrap you send, you'll get $10 off the subscription price, which means you can have all of Bubblegum Crisis on LaserDisc for as little as $140. Each wrap submitted must be from a different Crisis episode; the back of the wrap will be stamped with a mark indicating it has been used, and mailed back to you after your order has been recorded. In order to make the most of the higher video quality available on LaserDisc, the series will be resubtitled onto D2 digital videotape, using AnimEigo's latest subtitling and syncronization technology, as well as the improved song translations that were done for the Music Videos. AnimEigo, founded in 1988, is one of the pioneers of the Japanese Animation market in the U.S. Located in Wilmington, N.C. and Tokyo, Japan, AnimEigo has released more subtitled Japanese Animation than any other company. AnimEigo has 8 programs or series, totalling almost 100 titles, under license, with 19 titles currently in release. Already in release are "MADOX-01," a parody of the "giant robot" genre, "Riding Bean," a fast-paced action adventure set in modern day Chicago, all 8 episodes of "Bubblegum Crisis," all 3 episodes of "Bubblegum Crash," the sequel series to Bubblegum Crisis, both volumes of "Vampire Princess Miyu," an elegantly chilling horror series (on both tape and LaserDisc), the first two volumes of "Kimagure Orange Road," a psychic love-comedy, and the first Bubblegum Crisis Music-Video. Coming in the remainder of 1992 are three remaining "Kimagure Orange Road" volumes, the second Bubblegum Crisis Music-Video, "Urusei Yatsura," Japan's most outrageous animated comedy, and the Bubblegum Crisis LaserDiscs. For more information about AnimEigo products, or to order, call Janice Hindle or Peter Haswell at (919) 251-1850. //////////////////////////////MAIL ORDER INFO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ The following is a list of businesses where the ANIME STUFF staff members shop for our anime stuff. They are highly recommended sources for anime and provide excellent service. All of them provide mail order so you can write to them for catalogs. SIGHT & SOUND NIKAKU ANIMART LASER PERCEPTIONS 1275 MAIN STREET 615 North 6th. St. 1739 Noriega Street WALTHAM, MA 02154 SAN JOSE, CA 95112 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122 PHONE: 1-617-894-8633 PHONE: 1-408-971-2822 PHONE: 1-415-753-2016 WOK TALK/SIGHT & SOUND and LASER PERCEPTIONS specialize in domestic and imported laser video discs. Nikaku sells magazines, books, compact discs, laser discs and other anime goods. Tell 'em ANIME STUFF sent ya! IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI BBS SYSTEM INFO IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO Here is a list of some of the more notable BBS's around the country that are dedicated mainly to anime chatter. > VALLEY OF THE WIND BBS, the official ANIMAG BBS Phone 1-415-341-5986 (CALIFORNIA, 300/1200/2400 BAUD) > ANIME LANE BBS Phone 1-818-762-3694 (CALIFORNIA, 300/1200 BAUD, Starlinkable through Van Nuys Node) /////////////////////////////////END NOTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ "I'm talking for free. I can't stop myself, it's a new religion." - Duran Duran, "New Religion" \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Date of original publication: 8/17/1992 ANIME STUFF Copyright (C) 1992 Tom Mitchell, MIDORI COMMUNICATIONS, & Studio Midori. All rights reserved. This publication originally appears on CompuServe Information Service's Comic Book & Animation Forum. USENET distribution is limited to Jude George. USENET Address : jg2f@andrew.cmu.edu INTERNET distribution is limited to Barry Brown. INTERNET Address : >INTERNET:barry@network.ucsd.edu Original Copyrights to the material reviewed, articles written and graphics presented are reserved by their respective owners. The contents of Anime Stuff may be reproduced in any form of media so long as the names of the authors are preserved, articles remain intact, and ANIME STUFF is mentioned as the source. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in publications for sale without the permission of the copyright holders listed above. Articles & computer artwork in Anime Stuff may be re-published in newsletters so long as a copy of the publication in which the articles appear are sent to: MIDORI COMMUNICATIONS c/o Tom Mitchell 474 Chowning Circle Dayton, Ohio 45429 U.S.A. "GIF" and "GRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMAT" are COPYRIGHTED (C) 1987-1992 CompuServe Information Service an H&R BLOCK company. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////