//////////////////////////////ANIME STUFF\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ "Reviews and Information on Japanese Animation Software" ISSUE 20 3/28/1994 This is the 20th 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 : 76701,273 or 75156,1067 GEnie Address : TOM-M Internet Address: 76701.273@compuserve.com or 75156.1067@compuserve.com - Masaki Takai : Writer & BBS System Distributor CompuServe Address : 75106,3257 - Albert Wong : Writer, Index Research CompuServe Address: 72657,2103 Internet Address: Albertw@chips.com, 72657.2103@compuserve.com, Prodigy Address: WJTM10B - Marijan Adam : INTERNET Distributor INTERNET Address : >INTERNET:adam@venice.mps.ohio-state.edu or Kimagure@venice.mps.ohio-state.edu GEnie Address : M.ADAM1 Contributing Authors for this Issue: - Eric Gustafson CompuServe Address : 73243,3012 - Hitoshi Doi Internet Address: doi@jrd.dec.com - Curtis H. Hoffmann Appearing in this issue courtesy of Hitoshi Doi. Internet Address: doi@jrd.dec.com - Sean M. Puckett Albino Frog Software, Inc Post Office Drawer 5822 Hollywood, FL 33023 USA CompuServe Address: 71572,2576 //////////////////////////ANIME FACT & COMMENT\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Welcome everyone to this 20th issue of Anime Stuff! I guess you could consider this a "Spring cleaning" of sorts thanks to the special focus of this issue: THE LOST INTERVIEWS. These excellent but incomplete interviews and a few other things have been sitting on my hard drive for a while, and I wanted to be sure and get them to our readers before we start cluttering up the drive with issue 21. I have a lot of things on my mind in regards to our hobby, and so I've jotted down a few notes on some things I'd like to mention and comment on. If you have any opinions on these or other things, please send them to me. I always enjoy discussing the details of our hobby! STUFF INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS SWETT PRINTED AT COMIC MARKET: In an unexpected surprise, an Anime Stuff reader named Eiji Ohmori approached Chris at the last comic market and asked him if he could distribute the interview I did with Chris at the Comic Market. Of course we'd say yes! Chris sent me a copy of Eiji's printed translation, and it was fantastic! I'm sure I was almost as surprised at Chris was. Eiji and his group did a great job re-printing our interview in Japanese. (I'm using it as a study aid!) Thanks, Eiji! HDTV: Of course the Japanese government is retracting a few statements made last month about adopting the proposed American digital system of HDTV and dumping the analog MUSE system. It will happen of course. I doubt that the Japanese will let themselves fall behind in such a vital technology and also loose out on the lucrative American market. I don't see what their problem is. Japans investment in MUSE is nothing compared to potential profits and benefits of a digital system. And of course, just like Japan's TV industry did with the old American NTSC TV standard, they have another chance to beat us at selling us our own inventions. For us anime fans, our big concern is a compatible HDTV system. We were rather lucky to end up having compatable television systems between the U.S. and Japan with NTSC. I hope it remains that way. I certainly plan on being an anime fan at the turn of the century too! DIRTY PAIR FLASH: At that time I write this, I still have not seen the new Dirty Pair OAV series DIRTY PAIR FLASH. As a die-hard fan, all I can say is that it better be good. The radical character design changes and the obvious aim of the OAV to place the Lovely Angels into the "magical girl" genre has me worried. But DP creator Takachiho supposedly approves of this, and early word from some of my friends say that this show is pretty good, so perhaps I shouldn't worry. We'll see... GENIE'S WASTE OF SPACE: Stuff's official outlets are CompuServe, Internet, and GEnie. Even though we upload the latest issues to the Japan Roundtable on GEnie, someone else ALSO uploads a copy. And on top of that, they take all the graphics out, editing our content. Grrr...For one thing this confuses downloaders. And it also wastes file space with large redundant files! Sloppy. NEW FILE FORMAT FOR STUFF, OPINIONS PLEASE: I'm sick of ASCII. Really, really sick of ASCII. I've always wanted to do a "published" version of Anime Stuff with fonts and integrated graphics. Several new technologies now make sharing such documents across computer platforms possible. I've been reviewing COMMON GROUND and Adobe's ACROBAT formats, and have decided that for the next issue I will be producing it using Common Ground format. This "digital paper" issue would be compatible with Mac and Windows formats, and includes free viewing software. If you'd like to see Anime Stuff featured in such and advanced format, let me know. I'm looking forward to trying this out. I also suspect that I will be making Anime Stuff issues shorter and more frequently issued. I'd certainly like to change the format. ROBOTECH AGAIN: Who would have thought that you'd log into CompuServe and find that it's 1985 again? From the amount of folks chatting about Robotech, you'd think it was "deja vu". Let's face it, Robotech is back and just about as big as ever. Ok, so there's one good thing to all this in that it introduces some new fans to anime. But I can also think of 4 bad things about it: 1) It bores us all stiff, 2) it sets anime in the US back 9 years with it's popularity by justifying the editing of anime in the minds of producers, 3) ROBOTECH fans rarely explore anime, being satisfied with the tacky story distortion that makes up the show (witness the popularity of those cheesy novels), and 4) Carl Macek's head gets bigger for all the wrong reasons. AH! VS OH! AT ANIMEIGO: The biggest anime controversy of the year? AnimEigo goes "OH!" when the manga, the video, and everything else says "AH!". Well, sure, the show's creator basically says it makes no difference to him. I suppose they want to play off off of the English expression "Oh my god"! Still, will AnimEigo be changing the small English title on the OAV to say "OH!" instead of "AH!"? (^_^) The real name change that irked me this past year was was GUNNM becoming BATTLE ANGEL ALITA in the US market. And it's worse to be corrected by new fans that don't know any better when you use the original title. (^_^) Keep the original names so we can at least keep some consistency, please. Except for translating purely Japanese titles, of course. That's it! Once again, thank you for indulging me in my random thoughts! Please proceed to enjoy this latest issue of Anime Stuff! And to everyone that contributed to this issue, thanks! - Tom Mitchell Publisher /////////////////////////////GIF GRAPHICS NOTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ AS20COVR.GIF - 522 x 681 x 256 colors GIF graphic file: The cover for this issue of Anime Stuff. A shaft of light reveals the Lost Interviews! //////////////////////////////////VIDEO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ RANMA 1/2 OVA #1 (Pony Canyon/Shogakukan Video PCLE-00002, Y4500) Everything must come to an end... And then spawn an OVA series. Such is the case with Ranma 1/2, the first OVA of which was released only a year after it went off the air in Japan. Five more are to follow, released at approximately two-month intervals - with the second to come in December '93. (Viz Video will be releasing the series domestically, dubbed into English.) The hectic plot centers around Shampoo, who has been devoted to the uninterested Ranma since early in the television series. In this OVA, the tables are turned - Shampoo's unfortunate discovery of a cursed brooch reversing her personality and making her hate Ranma with a passion. Ranma takes this as a challenge and sets off to make Shampoo interested in him again. Akane and Moose, both disgusted with this turn of events, try to stop Ranma from marrying Shampoo, while Colonge does everything in her power to encourage the marriage. This sort of behavior is very hazardous to Ranma's health - he/she gets beaten up a lot - by Akane, Shampoo, Uuchan, Kunou and Ryoga - in fact, by most of the cast. By the end of the OVA, he winds up in a hospital bed... With people waiting for him to get better so they can beat him up some more. The thirty minute OVA fits neatly onto one CAV side of a disc, though it exhibits the sort of jitter every few frames that is usually associated with poor production. (This is only evident when you're stepping through it, mind you. On normal playback, the disc is flawless.) Should you buy this disc? Well, for the drooling Shampoo fiends, there are lots of reasons, including the gratuitous shower scene. Also, you get to see Ranma struggling with the entirely unfamiliar science of courting. It's great fun. On a technical level, the animation is far superior to the television series (as is to be expected from an OVA), and the music is well done and well executed, with the exception of the somewhat overdone ending sequence. - Eric Gustafson //////////////////////////////////AUDIO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ THE CRIMSON PIG/PORCO ROSSO Original Soundtrack on CD (Animage Records, TKCA-30596, 3,000 Yen) For the soundtrack to Hiyao Miyazaki's PORCO ROSSO, composer and long- time collaborator Jo Hisaishi has presented us with another wonderful score. Stepping away from synthesizers again for the most part, he's given us a full orchestra sound and playful composition that is everything the pilots in the film were: romantic & funny, introspective & egotistical, adventuresome & bombastic. The score falls somewhere in between Jo's scores for Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service in attitude, but peppered with parade tunes and mandolin, the score takes on a very Italian flavor that provides hints of the film's Mediterranean setting. The disc's 24 tracks also include the romantic ballads sung during the bar scenes and ending credits of the film with Japanese and French vocals. A must for Miyazaki and Hisaishi fans, and for those who like to hear genius at work and play with an orchestra. The sound quality of the recording is outstanding as well! Highly recommended. - Tom Mitchell THE WEATHERING CONTINENT - Original Soundtrack on CD (Victor, VICL-302, 3,000 Yen) Certainly one of my personal favorites, and one of the more unusual sounding and strikingly recorded soundtracks of any recent anime. Michuru Oshima's score for the exotic and solemn film The Weathering Continent matches the film's dreamy and harsh fantasy setting with a sound that is equally detailed and lush. Joining his music on the album is Yui Nishiwaki with her strong and smooth vocals on some contemporary and moving ballads that perfectly offset and punctuate the mood of the score. The music ranges from bold and brash rumbling percussion to the contemplative tinkling of harps and strings. Perhaps the most startling feature of the recording are the instruments used. They are very exotic. In fact the composer and musicians made it a point to find some strange instruments to use in order to punctuate the fantasy and ancient settings of the film. The soundtrack reminded me of Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to the film Arion, but this recording's compositios are more contemplative and much better engineered. I'd highly recommend it for fans of this unusual film and for listeners who'd like to give their ears a vacation...say to the exotic sounds of ancient Atlantis, perhaps? - Tom Mitchell //////////////////////////////////VIDEO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ WINDARIA - New Laserdisc Pressing (TAXCO, SBLL-24, 5,200 Yen, 113 minutes, Stereo, Digital Audio) Windaria, a fantasy fairy tale from hell, is the story of how one man's greed and blind ambition can destroy everything and everyone he loves as he becomes a pawn in a war between two kingdoms. This stunningly beautiful and sadly romantic tale, famous for it's depressing ending, has been re-released in a new laserdisc release that outshines previous home video versions of the film. If you like Windaria, this new LD pressing from Taxco is a must! The previous LD version that had been available since just after the film's 1986 release featured a good video transfer, and excellent analog sound. This new release is a major upgrade! It features a slightly wider letterboxed transfer, a higher resolution video master, better pressing quality for the LD, and digital sound that takes you to the limit of the film's wonderfully engineered stereo soundtrack! Contrary to rumors about this release, this LD does not feature a Multi- Audio option of book readings on the analog tracks. The digital and analog tracks are exactly the same throughout the disc. The bonus on the LD comes in film content. This new disc features the original theatrical trailers and some test footage for Windaria. If you have the old disc or tape, I strongly recommend upgrading to this version. And it's even cheaper than the original release too! For those of you who have never seen Windaria, check it out! It features beautiful artwork, character design, and simple but emotional romantic drama that has not been matched in any anime fantasy film since. Awesome battle scenes for you mecha heads too! Just be sure to keep a box of tissues near by, 'cause you're gonna need 'em. - Tom Mitchell ////////////////////////////////ANIME LIFE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ====================================================================== Once again, Curtis H. Hoffmann has provided us with another insightful article full of his observations about anime. This time he turns his attention to the many cheats and cliches that can be found in almost every animation film. Don't hold Anime Stuff responsible if after reading this article you find your eyes drawn to many of the "features" Curtis mentions! - Tom Cheats, Cliches, Cartoons, Anime... Version 1.5. Copyrighted November 30, 1992, by Curtis H. Hoffmann. Permission is granted to cross-post this file in whole to other computer networks (in fact, I'd be very happy if someone would crosspost this to Fido.) This file may be reprinted in a fanzine or newsletter as long as I'm notified, in exchange for a copy of the issue this article appears in. This article can not be altered, or reprinted in a for-profit magazine, without permission. Added in this version: But They All Look Alike Joke Cola Self-Reference Cross-References Punny Names There are many ways to cut corners in the process of creating animation. I'm going to try to describe some of them, as I also attempt to catalog the cliches used in both western and Japanese cartoons. If you have any comments on this file, feel free to make them. If you have anything to add to the list, please do so. Most of the names used here are my own creation, and are not in common usage anywhere else. Simple definitions: Anime -- Japanese produced and directed paint-on-cel animation. Has no inherent implications as to quality of the product. Cartoon -- Encompasses paint-on-cel-based animation from around the world, but normally is applied only to North American productions with little story-telling potential that are aimed at children. Added changes came from: Enrique Conty [EC] Derek Upham [DU] John Martin Karakash [JMK] jeffj@yang (ChaOs) [JJ] ------------------------ Animation Cheats and Cliches ------------------------ Shooting on 3's: In film, there are 24 frames per second. For video tape, there are 30 frames. Really fluid animation is gained by drawing one frame of a character's movement per frame of film. However, this is only necessary when a character is moving from left to right (or right to left,) and the camera is panning along the background artwork. This prevents a strobing-effect that occurs when the background moves too far on the screen from one frame to the next. Normally, the animator can make do with one drawing per 2 frames of film. This is called "shooting on 2's." Most theatrical films, and some TV cartoons are shot on 2's, and everything looks fine. However, you can save money by skipping some work, and shoot 3 frames per drawing. Many TV cartoons are shot on 3's or 4's, which gives a very jerky feeling to the action. Something like _Hammerman_ is shot at least on 4's, if not on 8's. Simplicity: The standard western cheat is to simplify the character design, so there are fewer lines to draw per frame. This is obvious both in the body features, and the clothing elements. You can also see this in Anpan-man, Mary Bell, and Chibi Maruko-chan. The Blend: When you have a very detailed image, like the close-up of a person's face, it takes a lot of time and effort to animate it smoothly. Instead, you can paint maybe 4 or 8 "extreme poses" and film them as static images. The next step is to use post-production editing to fade from one still to the next. Alternatively, a few in-between cels can be painted that have ghosts of the extremes, which gives the same effect, but with much less work than if every single frame had been created from scratch. This may cut the total number from 60 drawings, to 15, or 8. The final results may be used to heighten the emotional effect of a scene, or to simply stretch out the action of a complex drawing. Usually, you'll see this when a crying girl turns away from the hero, or when a top sports player dives for the ball during a crucial play. The Triple Repeat Attack (TRP): When someone gets hit hard, the camera pans by a single still of the attack three times, occasionally with little variations in each pan, like zooming in a bit further for each pass. It is very easy to over-use this device for even the most trivial of situations. It is very much a cliche, but it's also a cheat since you may only have one drawing for 10 seconds of film. Chan-Style, or Super-Deformed Style: Admittedly, this is a purely Japanese technique that is mostly just a cliche, and not necessarily a cheat. But, the results are the same -- less work per frame. Both techniques consist of drawing a normal character as if he were a 5 year-old, with a larger head, smaller body, and chubby limbs. Most of the details will be lost at the same time. These are done mainly for slapstick comedy effect. The Assembly Sequence: You'll see the Assembly Sequence normally in a kiddie power-suit, or mecha show. It consists of the character (like Sailor Moon, or Metal Jack,) calling out something ("Make Up!" or "Jack On!") which will be followed by stock footage of the character standing around while the suit or outfit wraps itself around him. By itself, this is no big deal. Except, that it's the exact same sequence from one episode to the next. In this way, the animators save themselves about 1 to 3 minutes of animation per character per episode. It's both a cheat, and a cliche. --- Also an amusing example of your 'suit up' cheat was noticed by me and my roommate on the Ghostbusters (NOT the Real Ghostbusters BTW). We calculated that over half the show was suit up/reused cels/commercials. Which brings me to the cheat most beloved by advertisers, the long- block-of-commercials-then-a-short-reminder-of-what-show-you're-watching- and- then-more-commercials cheat! [JMK] Separated eyes and mouths: The opposite side of the coin from Simplicity is Shading and Detail. Here, the animators (usually Japanese,) have added so much detail and color to the character's face that it's too much work to redraw it in each frame as the character talks. So, instead of redrawing the face a lot (which allows you to get a jaw that moves as the character speaks,) you draw the face on one cel, and the mouth and eyes on another. (Admittedly, western animators use this technique for the same reasons, but the faces in their drawings have much less detail to begin with.) Gaping Mouth Wounds: In TV, it's not necessary to get the lip-sync down really tightly when a character talks, which means that sometimes the mouth moves even when the character has stopped talking. This saves work, because you don't have someone tied up with the very time-consuming task of breaking the dialog down into single frames, and vowel sounds. The extreme case, though, is when you don't worry about the specific dialog matching up with the shape of the mouth. Now, you only have 4 or 5 standard mouth positions (open, closed, partially opened, and yelling,) instead of the normal 7 or 10, and you just jump them around under the camera roughly in time with the dialog. This is common both in anime, and western cartoons. The Hold: When a character is thinking, or becomes stunned, he'll freeze on the screen. The only action comes from a camera pan in, or out. The Hold also occurs when one character stops talking and the other begins. Anyone not talking simply freezes on the screen. This saves the studio a lot of time and money, because the alternative is to draw separate frames with the character's clothes rippling in a breeze, or the character's face reacting to whatever is being said. Statue Crowds: Crowd scenes require a lot of work, and time that the studio can't afford to spend. Therefore, crowds will be treated as background artwork. The only element of movement comes from the camera panning across, and the only signs of life will be the voice actors cheering as voice-overs. Occasionally, mouths will be painted on separate cels for one or three audience members to do a little yelling on their own. The Cycle: This is a classic animation technique all studios use extensively. The basic idea is to put the character into a repeating action cycle, and just draw the first few cels necessary for it. The normal example is a simple walk, which only takes 7 to 12 cels for a sequence that may last 30 seconds. Disney is famed for its use of more complex cycles in its early short cartoons. 4-colors VS 256: Simply by looking at most western TV animation, you can tell that the animators are saving themselves a lot of effort by eliminating shading, and reducing the number of colors in the clothing designs. Fewer colors means less work, fewer costs, and a more boring image. The Japanese will use more colors and the GMW technique at the same time. Last Week's Re-Cap: When you have an episodic adventure series like Dragon Ball, or Dodge Danpei, you'll get a re-cap of the action from the previous episodes before the show starts up with the new stuff. This means that the animators are saving themselves about 3 to 5 minutes of work by reusing old animation with a voice-over narration. The Repeat Thingie: Occasionally, you may notice a character doing one action in one scene, and later doing the exact same action in an entirely different scene. This is a case of reusing existing cels with either a different background, or a different prop (changing a hammer for an ax.) Some of the really bad American moralistic cartoons from the '60s used this technique A LOT. Recycled Animation: Disney does this occasionally. When the cels are filmed for any given show or movie, the cels themselves will be either tossed or washed and reused. But, the pencil drawings will usually be stored for future works. This way, all that's needed is to xerox the existing artwork, and change the color scheme for the new scene. ------- FILMATION seems to use this technique a lot. Compare He-Man, She-Ra, Tarzan and Star Trek some time. The poses and layouts are almost exactly the same (the "Close-up-with-half-face-visible", especially). [DU] Rotoscoping: Rotoscoping is done by projecting live footage under a sheet of paper to allow the animator to trace the picture, frame by frame, before modifying it. The advantage is that the animator doesn't have to figure out how a character moves through trial and error. The down side is that the result usually looks pretty cheesy (just look at any Ralph Bakshi movie.) While the Fleischer Brothers used rotoscoping (and created the process,) very artfully, it's still obvious when it's employed. Disney tried using rotoscoping in a number of his films, but the results weren't to his liking, and the animators just redrew those scenes, anyway. Note: Venus Wars did not have rotoscoping in the motorcycle scenes: that was an example of optical printing (adding animation over live footage.) Xerox: Originally, when a pencil drawing was cleaned up, the ink and paint department would trace the pencil lines onto the cels via multicolored inks (which allowed for more subtle shadings, and details,) before the paints were added. Now, it's easier to xerox the final pencils onto a cel. The drawback is that the xerox lines look rougher, may have breaks in them, and will be all in black (removing the element of subtlety.) ------- A nice counterpoint to this was the work in the GIANT ROBO OVAs. From what my sources tell me, the final pencils are xeroxed, but then a second cel is overlayed on the first, and this second cel is hand-painted. The resulting cel-work is simply amazing. [EC] Speed lines: This is a cliche used to get a heightened emotional response, while also filming a static pose. When a character starts an attack, the background is replaced with streaks of color, or simple racing lines. This doesn't actually save the animators any work, and adds a little more work for the camera operator because the backgrounds need to be changed more often. But, since the background was static to begin with, and the main character has also become static, the speed lines help liven things up a bit. Collars and Talking Heads: Hanna-Barbera is notorious for this trick. Rather than redrawing the entire character for each frame that the mouth moves, you give the character a collar, and then place the head on a different cel underneath the body cel. The body is usually then kept stationary, and the head cels are changed in sequence. Although, if the character does walk and talk at the same time, it's still less work to animate than otherwise. Shimmering eyes: This is both a cliche and a cheat. Take a Hold, and just redraw some white highlights inside the pupils. Why draw an emotional face, if you don't have to? The 'No Face': One cheat that I didn't see mentioned is the 'no face' cheat. Put a helmet on a guy/gal/thing and you've saved yerself tons of time. Put him/her/it in a whole suit and voila! minimal use of shading/movement is required. [JMK] (Curtis comments: Not exactly true. Bubble Gum Crisis used this pretty heavily, but it still had a lot of shading on each suit. The primary savings come from not having to show the character blink or talk, and there are less details to draw the first time around.) Re-used sounds: A number of people have commented on the fact that the sound tech will steal sound effects from movies like Aliens, and Star Wars, for certain situations, rather than create an entirely new sound himself. I haven't noticed this myself, but there's a growing consensus that this happens a lot. The reasons should be obvious. Photo Backgrounds: This is a common manga technigue. The result is a highly realistic background image that looks like it was xeroxed before being photocopied. It provides the illusion of added depth to the manga, while saving the artist a lot of work. ----------------------- Anime Cliches ----------------------- The Multiple-Character-Single-Gasp Reaction: I find this to be one of the more annoying time-consuming Japanese cliches. It's very simple -- something startling will happen, or a character will get smashed up. Then, the camera will pull in for a close up of each of the other characters -- one at a time -- as they gasp or speak the guy's name. This has been happening too often in Dragon Ball Z. The result is to force a heightened sense of suspense, and to stretch out a fight scene while doing a small amount of work. Example -- Piccilo will get punched into the ground. The camera then cuts to a close-up of #18, who will gasp. Now, cut to #17, who will gasp. Then, cut to #16 for a gasp. Next, cut to Kiririn to gasp. And continue down the line until you run out of characters. Repeat this operation 2 or 4 times per battle per episode. The Raging Flames/Crashing Surf: An alternative to Speed Lines -- when a character gets overly emotional, or "highly charged," the background will be replaced by roaring flames or surf. This is just an intensity-building device, used extensively by Rumiko Takahashi. The Slash Split Screen: Another cliche, related to the Multi-Character-Single-Gasp Reaction, the difference being that the MCSGR is sequential, and the S^3 is more-or-less simultaneous. When the main character is hit, the first reaction will appear in the top portion of the screen, the second reaction appears on the bottom, and the remaining reactions will be in the middle of the screen. _Dodge Danpei_ uses this technique. Bubble Gum Crisis does the same thing, but usually when the Knight Sabers are preparing to go into battle and all of them say "roger," or "Knight Sabers -- Go!" Tokyo Feet: This is a term coined by Larry Greenfield to describe the cloud of feet and sweat (sometimes tears) that surrounsd a character when he goes into panic-mode. There is no longer a relation between the character's feet and the ground, as the character just slides back and forth on the screen. Again, the result is also less work per frame. The Temple Vein: Especially in manga. When a character gets stressed-out, or angry, a cross-like outline of a 4-way vein intersection will pop up on their forehead. Sometimes, this gets carried to extremes, as in the manga where an identical vein pops up three different places on the back of a guy's hand. (Real veins don't act like that.) "Poits": In the wonderful world of the Japanese language, several words exist that are nothing more than sound effects (like "niko," for the sound of a smile.) When you're watching anime played for laughs, a wide-eyed character blinking in surprise will make a "poit", or "pika" sound (occurs a lot in Urusei Yatsura, and Kimengumi High School.) And, in Project A-ko, when C-ko smiles in front of the class, she says "Niko." Trick Dreams: A common story device used to hook the viewer's attention. Employed heavily in Kimagure Orange Road. Basically, something really bad or really good will happen to the star right at the beginning of the episode, only to turn out to be a dream. Rain Shimmers: Not necessarily a cliche or cheat, but a commonly used special effect in anime. There's a lot of rain in the spring and fall in Japan, so rain has become an accepted plot device (plus, when bad events happen to the principle characters, rain will start falling to symbolize their plight.) To show that the rain is hitting trees, people, or animals, a light halo will shimmer around the tops, heads, and shoulders. A separate set or 4 or 5 cels will be used for this, if the characters are just standing and talking. The Background Cameo: One of the most prized anime devices for fans. Because it takes a long time for an animator to finish a sequence or background, said animator will add silly things to make their job more fun. Such as the Star Trek USS Enterprise blueprints in _The Nolandia Affair_, and the appearance of The Dirty Pair's Kei in a background shot in the _Fist of the Northstar_ movie. A little of this shows up in _The Simpsons,_ but is more common in anime movies and OAV's than TV shows. Jumping Talkers: When a Japanese studio has a medium-range shot of a talking character, they'll redraw the entire figure even though only the mouth is moving. This is not an easy operation, because the body has to be copied and painted without variations, and the cycle cels have to be registered exactly. So, when a character bounces up and down as they speak, you know that the registration slipped. Nadia is a featured Jumper in Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. This phenomenom is not really a cliche or a cheat, but it is peculiar to anime. Tear Floods: Yet another Japanese cliche used instead of animating an actual emotion. Several series (like Kimengumi High School) have parodied this cliche, with characters holding buckets to catch someone else's flood. The Tear Pendulums: One of the stranger cliches, also a twist on the Tear Flood. When you get hit in the head, tears well up in your eyes. You may even get a a little tear running down your cheeks a bit. Well, this teardrop looks almost like a ball on the end of a string. Take this image 10 steps further, and you get a white pingpong ball swinging from a white stick under each eye. This device occurs a LOT in manga, and some silly anime (most notably, Ranma 1/2.) (It took me a long time to figure out what these things were.) Snot-Nosed Kids: In Japan, it's not polite to blow your nose in public -- instead, you're just supposed to keep sniffing until you have the chance to "do your business in private." Because of this, colds (the cold-sufferer will voluntarily wear a face mask to keep from infecting other people in public,) sneezing on people, and runny noses are commonly used as gags in manga, and in anime to a lesser extent. The standard joke is to show an uncultured kid, or a frightned man, as someone with snot running down his lip (and frequently into his mouth.) The Nose Bubble: A related gag to the S-NK, is the simple rendering of someone soundly asleep, blowing snot bubbles through their nose. This is the visual clue that tells you that this people is sleeping, and is commonly accompanied by lip-, or chin-, drool. The Sweat Drop: You'll also see this in manga when a character gets nervous, apprehensive, or scared. A large teardrop will appear somewhere on the character (many times, on the back of the head.) Occasionally, the sweat drop will be placed on a separate cel, and slid down the character's face (the face is in a Hold.) It's easier than animating the face for those emotions. The Stunned Fall-Over: One more Japanese cliche. When someone says something stupid or unexpected, everyone else will fall flat on their face or back. In many cases, one character will fall over, and then reappear with The Bandage on their forehead. The Writhing Face: To show intense emotion (usually frustration or anger,) the animator will draw the face in two extreme poses (with maybe one in-between pose for filler) with the teeth grinding and eyes opening or closing. These few cels are alternated under the camera to give the impression of the desired emotion, but the actual effect is to make the character's eyes and mouth writhe around on his face. Happens extensively in Dragon Ball Z. Super Deformed Ugly: This seems to be the counter-point to the "super-deformed' style, where the character is made to look more cute. In SDU, the eyes get deformed, the mouth contorts in a "jaw on the ground, while slurping a lemon" grin, and shade lines will appear around the eyes, and bridge of the nose (either the character is blushing, suffering from burning eyes, or has smelled something REAL BAD,) and there will be an over-all simplifying of features. Although a lesser form of this is used heavily in Yawara, the true SDU appears in college "bad boys and girls" manga. Behhhh: One of the best cliches, you'll get this when one character is acting uppity, and the other "dis's" him. One finger pulls down the lower lid of one eye, the tongue is stuck out, and the character says "behhhhh". Very common in anime and manga. Fake Fighting: Again, when a character gets uppity, another one will smash him in the head with a fist, a bat, book, or shoe. This normally looks pretty painful, but has no lasting effects. Characters may even get into full-blown brawls, and be covered in lumps from head to toe, but will completely recover in the next panel or frame. The Bandage: When someone gets bopped in a Fake Fight, they will immediately receive a bandage in the next frame. Which will disappear as soon as the joke is over. The Head Job: Another bizarre visual device. When an animal/beastperson gets very excited/angry, it will attack you. Normally, on the arms, hands, feet, or legs, if this is a western story. In anime and manga, this beast will attach itself to the top back part of your head, and will hang there for the length of the scene. Examples of this can be found in _Dragon Half_, _Ushio and Tori_, and _Dragon Ball_. Sometimes, the person's entire head will be engulfed. Normally, like Fake Fighting, the beast will not leave a permanent mark on you (In Dragon Ball, a ghoul does this to Kuririn during battle, leaving a circle of blood fountains on Kuririn's scalp, and requiring the use of bandages during several episodes before Kuririn can recover.) The Called Shot: Of all of the anime cliches, the Called Shot has to be the most disliked, and embarrassing, to the new fans. Basically, the character will strike a pose, or wield a certain weapon, and call out the name of whatever attack he or she will now use. "Dragon Punch!" "Flaming Iris Sword!" or "Buster Shield!" One of the main reasons this action is employed so heavily in anime and manga is simply that the audience has no other way of knowing what the hell the character is doing, otherwise. Further, there is something of a history behind this action -- including Kamen Rider and Ultra Man -- and that is the fact that so many martial arts techniques have such names. "Round House Kick," "Side Snap," "Inside Leg Throw," and "Tiger Claw." And, an observer unfamiliar with a particular martial arts school, would be completely clueless when one technique is used, or another. To western audiences, this is merely a silly thing -- "Why don't these guys just trash each other and get it over with? Who cares what the technique is called? I just wanna watch these bozos kick each other's butts." A variant of this is used in Hokuto no Ken, where the attack is made, and then the name of the technique is emblazoned on the screen over a still painting of the hero. The Big Gun: Doesn't have to be a gun, but it's a big "mega-nuke" attack that usually takes out anyone it's aimed at. Often has incredible special effects. A downside of this is that they tend to be overused. (Like in Voltron - every episode, without fail...) Examples: "Form Blazing Sword!" from Voltron, the Wave Motion Cannon from Star Blazers, the SDF-1 Main Gun from Macross, Captain Planet himself from Captain Planet and the Planeteers, and what we like to call the "Mandala attack" from Shurato. [JJ] Missing Bars: This is a rather interesting artistic technique where a character is behind a fence, or in a prison, and the bars or chain links that would normally hide the face simply are not drawn in. Shows up in various manga. But They All Look Alike!: This is one of the first things non-fans notice when they watch anime, and it is both a cliche and a cheat. In manga, the designs usually vary enough from one character to the next that you can easily tell them apart. But in anime, because it's so important to remain consistent from one frame to the next, the director may make the characters look alike to make them easier to draw quickly, and then differentiate them by changing their hair colors. Case in Point: Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus. This is also represents a cost savings, when the rest of the characters' costumes are the same colors, and it's not necessary to maintain another batch of paint shades. Cross-References: This is not quite the same as the Background Cameo, but it's closely related. Simply, it's just a case of a popular character from one series showing up in some form in another series. A November installment of Twinkle^2 Idol Star has a villian wearing a Sailor Moon t-shirt. In Gun Buster: Over the Top, a poster from one of Miyazaki's films is tacked up on a wall. And, in a Self-Referential Cross Reference, Usagi plays a Sailor V (ie. -- Sailor Moon) video game in many episodes. ----------------------- Animation Flaws ----------------------- NOTE: There are many ways a studio can err in its work -- skipping a frame or two of motion, flipping the frames so that a couple are out of sequence, using the wrong colors on one or two cels, screwing up cel registration, and so on. The following error(s) revolve around the specific skills (or lack thereof) used in animating a scene or character, that can be seen consistently in the productions of one or more studios. The Flat Mouth: Kissing, eating, blowing whistles, and anything else that requires using the mouth. When you watch anime, you'll notice that the characters' mouths just lie flat on the cel, without deforming properly to adaption to the actions they are taking. It's most obvious when a character is eating -- the food comes up to the mouth, the lips surround a bit of the food, the food just disappears, and the character makes chewing motions. It's the surest sign that you're watching a cartoon, and is a consistent flaw even in the most well-made productions. Western cartoons have a similar flaw, but generally avoid the problem entirely. ----------------------- Scriptwriting Cliches ----------------------- NOTE: These are cliches that appear in other forms of entertainment and storytelling, and aren't peculiar only to animation. Knuckle Cracking: As everyone knows, when a huge, strong guy is about to beat the crap out of a victim, he will crack his knuckles as a part of flexing his hands. This has been turned into an anime cliche, and extended to the point where REALLY vicious guys crack the muscles and joints in their neck. Real people can not do this. Do not try this at home on your little sister. The Flashback: Standard cliche in anime, used to fill in story details that the audience doesn't already know, but which will immediately justify the character's next actions. A very common plot device used in episodic serials. Ripping the Disguise: A previously unknown character is doing all sorts of amazing feats. At an appropriately dramatic scene, the character grabs at his/her shoulder and PULLS. Cloth flies in front of the camera, and when it settles down we see one of the regular characters in his/her usual garb. The previous outfit/physical features were a disguise. [EC] This is used with variations in all western forms of entertainment. Cute Bastards: One of the worst developments to come out of the western world. To make a show appeal to small children, an otherwise unnecessary character will be added to the line-up. This character will be cute, appealing, and utterly loathsome to adults. Scrappy-Doo is an excellent example of this. If carried to extremes, the entire cast will be thus metamorphised, as in The Muppet Babies, and the new version of Tom and Jerry. ------ Can you say "Slimer and the Ghostbusters"? What's interesting is that Scooby-Doo may be an example of this as well. I'd read a long time back (can't remember the source, now) that the Scooby-Doo concept had originated in Great Britan. It was then a series with the Mods (Fred and Daphne) versus the Beatniks (Shaggy and Velma) racing to solve various mysterys; Scooby was a minor character. When they took the concept to the U.S., they cutified it. [DU] Narrative Voice-Overs: Both a plot device, and a cheat. The plot element of a NVO is obvious -- to fill in details for the audience, rather than to make those details a part of the story leading up to that point. The cheat comes in because the action on the screen will turn into a Hold with a camera pan or pull out. In animation, the work is shifted from the animators to the cameraman and the narrator. Too Many Commercials: Refer to the note by JMK at the end of the Assembly Sequence entry. The Five Man Band: (This is an anime cliche that a friend of mine calls "5 character theory". As far as I know, the first instance of this is in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, aka Battle of the Planets. Since then, it's appeared in shows like Voltron, Mospeada aka Robotech III, several live action shows, and even movies, like Star Wars. The five character types are:) [JJ] The Hero: Upstanding, idealistic, handsome. Usually the protagonist of the show, although people tend to think that The Other Guy is far cooler. Examples include Luke Skywalker, Fred from Scooby-Doo, and Scott Bernard in Robotech III. The Big Guy: Big, and strong. Sometimes dumb, but usually turns out to be very friendly. Examples: Chewbacca, Lunk from Robotech III, Ryooma from Shurato. The Other Guy: Usually cool and disreputable. If someone has facial hair, it's probably him. Quite often the most effective person on the team. Lancer from Robotech III and Han Solo are classic Other Guys. The Chick: The token female on the team. Sometimes she knows what she's doing, but not always. Princess Leia, the princess from Voltron, Daphne from Scooby-Doo. Sometimes, The Chick is an androgynous or homosexual male, like Reiga from Shurato. The Pet: Usually annoying to anyone who has entered puberty (and thus discovered The Chick) Frequently incompetent. The 'droids from Star Wars, Cheop (sp?) from Battle of the Planets, Pidge from Voltron, the Copper Kid from Silverhawks, and Scooby-Doo from his own show. The Mentor: This is an optional archetype. Often appears to guide the characters, provide advice, or train them. The classic example is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also, Dungeonmaster from Dungeons & Dragons, Stargazer from Silverhawks, the King from Voltron, Vishnu from Shurato, Saori from St. Seiya. [JJ] Joke Cola: Another true classic, which is now to be found most commonly in manga: using big-brand names in the story, but with a slight twist on the spelling. Croke Cola, Nissam, etc. This is done for the humor value, as a slam against a particular product, and often to just lend a certain air of authenticity to the story without actually having to pay for the right to use someone else's trademarked logo. Self-Reference: [Insert self-referential joke here.] In the west, you'll see this mainly on the covers of humor magazines. With manga, a given series may occasionally feature a set-up where the name of the manga collection (ie. -- Young Jump) will appear somewhere in the background, or on the cover of the manga that one of the characters is reading. Anime can be a little more tricky: the studio's name will pop up on building signs, helmet logos, or other places where text is used. A prime example of this is in Bubble Gum Crisis, where AIC can be found on Priss' helmet, and on the road. Punny Names: Using puns for character names is a time-honored tradition. Ignoring Knight Lamune with its string of soft drink references, and Rumiko Takahashi's prediliction for item collections (Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, Herb, Lime, etc.) you can sometimes find characters in anime and manga whose names are jokes based on personality types, or something similar. The Rabbit Pounding Mochi On The Moon gives us Usagi, Sailor Moon's alter ego. Of course, there's Usagi, the rabbit hero in a certain comic published in English in the west. A closely related example is "Priss and the Replicants" (Bubble Gum Crisis, and Blade Runner.) ------------------------------------- If there are any other cheats or cliches, I haven't noticed them yet. I'll add them to the list if someone else mentions them to me. -- Curtis H. Hoffmann Dec. 4, 1992 ======================================================================== ---------------------------THE LOST INTERVIEWS------------------------ One thing I want to do with Anime Stuff is to bring the insights of expert fans and industry professionals to our readers through interviews. I think the ones that we've featured so far have worked out very well and have been very insightful. Below are a couple of interviews that were never completed and have been sitting in my files for some time. It seemed like a waste not to share them since they contain a lot of interesting stories and information that I thought everyone might enjoy even if the interviews themselves are incomplete. The first interview is a discussion with longtime Anime Stuff staff member Masaki Takai on his role in anime fandom here in the U.S. If many of his on-line friends are wondering what happened to him, well he's presently involved in study to become a doctor, so he's far too busy now even to enjoy his many hobbies. That includes anime! Consequently, because of the lack of time, this interview has been left incomplete. But it does offer some valuable insights into his influential college anime club, and some of the work he did for AnimeEigo anime translations. I hope one day we can pick up where we left off. The second interview features an interview with Jeffrey Sass of Troma, the folks responsible for marketing the excellent dubbed English translation of Hayao Miyazaki's film TONARI NO TOTORO. This interview was made around the time the film was being introduced to the U.S. market and the Troma staff were eagerly awaiting some of the first critical reviews for the film here in the US. Jefferey also got pretty busy, and the conclusion of this interview never came about. Despite that, it certainly does provide some neat information on Troma's acquisition of the film. I also understand the film will be released to the home video market this spring. Both interviews were conducted over several days via CompuServe E-mail. - Tom / / / Anime Stuff Interview with Masaki Takai Begun on 11/27/1992 TM: In a sense, this interview is a follow-up to the interview with AnimEigo co-founder Roe Addams that we featured in Anime Stuff 17. He mentioned you and your anime club as providing him with his major introduction to anime. How does it feel to create a monster? (^_^) MT: I don't know how accurate it would be to say that we really "introduced" Roe to anime. Roe had seen a few things before ... But it's probably true that Roe didn't know of the existence of a large group of anime fans out there who shared in the hobby. Back then, we were really primitive, working from a single VHS VCR, one LD player, and a small 13 inch TV. We'd crowd into my apartment, about 10-15 of us at the time if I recall correctly, and watch stuff. From such humble beginnings started CJAS and Roe's early visits to us became the impetus that turned into AnimEigo. :) TM: Well, at least you had a LaserDisc player. (^_^) Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, and what led you to form your anime club at Cornell? What do you do when you're not watching anime? Reading manga?(^_-) MT: A little bit about myself? I was born in Japan and raised in Hawaii. I decided to go to Cornell to get as far away from home as possible and still be in the US. (g) At the time, I was a big fan of Urusei Y, MI (manga versions), and the Macross Movie. I had also picked up this strange VHS tape the last time I had gone to Japan called Bubblegum Crisis. I spent a fair amount of time at the local comic store during my freshman year and the owner introduced me to this guy (whose name I don't remember right now to my regret) who was a really big fan of Zeta Gundam which I had never seen before. I went over to his house one night and spent the entire night there watching episodes with him and doing on-the-spot translations. (g) He was thrilled to finally understand the dialogue and I was thrilled by this exposure to a new (to me) TV series and the interest that this American seemed to have in this Japanese program. I began to slowly assemble a collection of tapes and decided to advertise on bulletin boards around campus that I had this stuff and would be showing it in my apartment to interested people. One of the first people that answered the ad was Kay Lillibridge who later went on to become vice-president of CJAS. She told me that she had been considering putting up ads of her own to show stuff when she had seen mine. (g) Many people have been instrumental in getting CJAS off the ground ... Tsao Sheng-Te, K and Chris Hindall, Bruce Hahne, not to mention many others without whom the club would probably have gone down in flames at one point or another. To all those people who I might have not had time to thank in person, here is my thanks for the job that you did. :) Now that I've turned the question into a thank-you note (g), besides anime, I have a bunch of other interests. Currently, these include aquariums (mostly saltwater these days), marine biology, reading manga and science fiction and fantasy novels, snorkeling and SCUBA diving, mountain bikes, Macintoshes (g), my Sega Megadrive, photography, singing karaoke etc. etc. My most current interest, of course, is getting into medical school. :) TM: I see we share a lot of the same interests. I think the only thing I haven't tried is karaoke and medical school. (^_^) I take it that you are now no longer directly involved in CJAS? While you were there, how many anime fans did you manage to attract, and did you ever move it out of your apartment? MT: I'm no longer directly involved with CJAS, correct ... I'm just Don Masaki Takai, "godfather". :) By the time I left Cornell, we were attracting at least 30 or so people to meetings. In fact, we were running out of room in our current location and we were trying to develop an alternate meeting site. After my apartment, we moved to the main campus library. Rick Lightfoot, the media room manager at Uris Library, helped us in scheduling one of their AV rooms for our meetings. Supposedly, membership has continued to grow after I've left. ;) TM: I take it that during the meetings you got a lot of experience doing translations? Were there many other folks in the club that could speak Japanese? MT: I got a lot of experience doing simultaneous translation while I was president of CJAS. Got pretty tiring after a few years. (g) There were a fair number of people in the club that could speak Japanese to some extent but who wouldn't be able to do a running translation. There was a much smaller group of people who were Japanese but wouldn't be able to do the translation to English. Currently, CJAS is relying a lot on scripts with script-readers as well as pure and simple watching it and guessing what's going on. :) TM: How did you get from rambling live translations at CJAS to your current position translating for AnimEigo? I don't know if I told you this before, but I thought your translation work for AnimEigo's subtitled release of Vampire Princess Miyu was brilliant. I enjoyed it very much, and it is quite a learning tool for me learning the language. MT: I can't take full credit for the Miyu translation as it appears on the video since there was always somebody working with me on the translation and then the trans. gets edited by the editor before it gets turned into subtitles. But thanks anyway. (g) After Roe had gotten hooked on anime, he and Robert became interested in forming a company to subtitle stuff and to increase the fandom. Through their contacts, they managed to get an introduction to the New York office of Fuji-Sankei. To give them a demo of what AnimEigo was capable of, they took the script for Miyu 1 that I had previously done and turned it into subtitles. The subtitling job impressed Fuji-Sankei enough such that AnimEigo obtained the license to Madox-01 ... which became our first title. :) My first paid work for AnimEigo was doing preliminary English editing on the Madox-01 script and doing the translation for the live video segment that followed Madox. TM: Are you doing any work on the new Urusei Yatsura releases that AnimEigo is bringing out? If that show is successful for AnimEigo, it could keep your staff of translators busy for a long time considering how many episodes that show ran. (^_^) MT: Yes, I am doing work on the UY stuff. I've translated a bunch of UY episodes so far and I'm currently working on the UY '87 OAV. We're being kept pretty busy doing all the translation for UY ... there doesn't seem to be an end to it. :) TM: I can imagine! Hundreds of episodes, and tons of movies and OAVs. How are you planning to handle the many Japanese language and cultural puns in the show? Viz comics tried to convey the humor by converting the Japanese gags to American cultural "equivalents" rather than explaining what the puns meant in Japanese. This turned out rather poorly, and was a stupid move on their part for something that could have been used as an opportunity for cultural education. MT: The cultural humor and stuff question is beyond me. My job is to translate the material. I translate the best I can and generally add a note to the editor when I feel my translation may not have captured the entire feeling of what was said. How the editor works that into the subtitles or addendum material is up to him/her. Yes, I agree that cultural jokes and gags should be explained for what they are as part of cultural education ... but you also need to keep the material entertaining. It's a delicate balance ... one job that I'm glad that I don't have. (g) TM: Recently, as AnimEigo has been re-releasing titles on Laserdisc, they have mentioned that they are adding improved titles and translations. What's involved in that? MT: We are currently trying to remaster most of our titles to D-2 digital tape. When we do this (generally as we release stuff for LD), we generally redo the titles to make them uniform across the product line. I'm not sure about the translation though ... as far as I know, we're still using the same translations, perhaps re-edited though. As to what's involved in doing this, ask the editors ... the translators aren't really involved. :) TM: When you're working on a translation of a film (TV episode, OAV, Movie), how many times do you view it? And have you ever viewed a favorite film so many times in translation, that you got sick of it? (^_^) / / / TROMA & TOTORO INTERVIEW with Jeffrey Sass & the Troma Team Started on 4/27/1993 TM: To begin, I would like to apologize to the cool reception we gave you and Troma on the Comic & Animation Forum here on CompuServe. When we heard that Troma was going to release a dubbed version of Hayao Miyazaki's Tonari no Totoro, we got kinda scared. We had seen so many companies in the past promise us faithful English adaptations of classic Japanese animation films, only to see them edited, and garnished with terrible voice acting and translated dialog. I have seen an early print of the Troma English Totoro, and I must say that you guys are really on the level with this. It's an excellent dubbing. The translation of the original dialog is good. It even manages to match lip movements pretty well! The voice acting is on par with the original film, and there are no cuts! Could you tell us a little about Troma and how and why this film caught your attention? JS: As you may know, Troma has been around for nearly 20 years as a leading independant producer and distributor of wild and wacky films. We have a library of over 100 movies including such classics as THE TOXIC AVENGER films, the CLASS OF NUKE'EM HIGH films, SURF NAZIS MUST DIE, etc. In 1990 we began to get interested in animation and more family oriented programming when our Toxic Avenger character was spun off into an animated children's series, THE TOXIC CRUSADERS. Since then, we have produced our first PG-13 rated film, SGT. KABUKIMAN NYPD (which may also be turned into an animated series) and we have recently signed with FOX CHILDREN'S NETWORK to develop a live-action kids show based on our CLASS OF NUKE'EM HIGH films. Our Licensing and Merchandising division has signed over 70 companies worldwide to manufacture TOXIC CRUSADERS products including a comic from MARVEL, trading cards from TOPPS and video games for both NINTENDO and SEGA. With this new interest in animation and family films, the Troma Team became interested in releasing an animated feature film. Troma President Lloyd Kaufman was in Tokyo, where he saw one of Miyazaki's films (not TOTORO) and he immediately becam a fan. We had already been doing some business with Tokuma (their video division has released a number of Troma Movies in Japan) so Lloyd contacted them regarding the animated features. We screened KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE and almost were to release it. Eventually we were able to work out a deal with Tokuma for MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. We are in touch with Tokuma's LA office on a daily basis and they have been workling closely with us on every step of our release plans. TM: Ah, I see. So you had a prior relationship with Tokuma. Based on their past treatment in the U.S. market, did Tokuma express much concern over how you would treat the film here? It's obvious with them keeping in touch with you so much that they want to keep a hand in what's happening with the film. They were heartbroken after Miyazaki's masterpiece NAUSICAA IN THE VALLEY OF THE WIND was cut up and changed by New World Pictures. The most popular animated feature in Japanese history trashed in the USA! JS: As a small independent company, and filmmakers ourselves, Troma has always respected the sanctity of the filmmaker. Even when we have released more "controversial" films such as BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, SURF NAZIS MUST DIE and COMBAT SHOCK we were determined to be true to the vision (no matter how warped) of the creators. As far as tampering goes, we have been outraged over the years at how the MPAA, with their double standard ratings system, has forced us to disembowel our own films such as THE TOXIC AVENGER, CLASS OF NUKE'EM HIGH, TROMA'S WAR and others. Therefore, we would never consider tampering with someone else's film we are distributing, especially when dealing with a master such as Miyazaki. Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz and the Troma Team have sincere respect for ANYONE who completes a movie. That, in and of itself is quite an accomplishment, no matter what the subject matter. As a distributor it is part of our obligation to present the film with the creator's vision intact. The best way to achieve this is to keep the filmmakers and producers involved in what we do, which is why we are in such close touch with Tokuma. TM: One thing I was interested in knowing about this presentation of TOTORO was about the soundtrack. Jo Hishaishi, one of Japan's most famous film music composers, did the score for this film as he has done for all of Miyazaki's movies since NAUSICAA. Will prints of TOTORO be presented in Dolby Stereo? The original film had a wonderfully engineered soundtrack, but I've noticed that most English language dubbers drop stereo tracks in anime brought to the States. This dubbing was particularly good. The best I've seen in fact! So, I was wondering about this one often neglected technical aspect. Music and sound play huge part in animation in Japan, as it is seen as a valuable product that can be sold to the fans. (Like me!) JS: Totoro (English Version) has a Mono soundtrack. (I promise a more interesting answer to the next question!) TM: I thought so. I realize there are cost and production problems involved with doing an English stereo dub. The reason that I asked was from the fact that the early dub of the English Totoro that I saw still had the Dolby Stereo logo on the print. I would like to encourage Tokuma and Troma to do a Dolby Stereo English translations in the future. Many of us anime fans are audio nuts too and are spoiled by the high audio production values used in Japanese animation. I think it would also help give Japanese animation a more legitimate and professional feel here in the States. And heck, it might even open up Troma to some soundtrack music sales. (^_^) That brings me to my next question; if Totoro is a hit, will we see a home video version of it, and perhaps some other related merchandizing? By the way, congratulations on the excellent early reviews on Totoro this month. You realize that this is the first time a major Japanese anime film has received this much exposure in the mainstream press. Kids might start begging parents for videos and stuffed Totoros! / / / E N D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SAILOR MOON CHRISTMAS EVENT The following is a transcript of a report sent to me by well-known anime and manga fan and translator Hitoshi Doi. It describes an adventure he had doing something that I've always wanted to check out; going to an anime voice actor event in Japan. On this particular day, Hitoshi and his son went to see a Sailor Moon Christmas event and a showing of the new Sailor moon movie. A special thanks to Hitoshi for sharing his description of the event with us. - Tom. "Sailor Moon and X'mas" event report version 1.0 by Hitoshi Doi, 1994.01.05 The "Sailor Moon and X'mas" event was held at the Marunouchi Toei Movie Theater in Ginza on Christmas day (1993.12.25). The movie theater was very nice (big, two floors, around 600 seats). I went with my son, as I had won two tickets. To get into this event, you had to send in a round-trip postcard and hope that you got one sent back with a notice saying that you can go. There were around 4000 postcards sent, and a little over 700 people got to go. I arrived at the movie theater at 6:00 PM. There were already 500 people standing in line with numbers that they had passed out earlier. I had gone to the movie theater at around 10:30 AM, and I talked to a guy who said that they were not going to pass out numbers. Since I didn't feel like standing in line for 9 hours, I went anime shopping. The guy lied! So we had to stand in line on the stairs inside the building. (Good thing we didn't have to stand outside in the cold.) I was early enough so that I was on the first set of stairs and was close enough to see the elevators on the first floor. While waiting, I saw the voice actresses and Takeuchi Naoko come out of the elevators a couple times. The first time, the voice actresses were in their normal clothes. The second time, they were in their flashy stage outfits. But of course they walked very quickly and they kept their backs turned to everyone. The only faces that I caught a glimpse of was Mitsuishi Kotono and Tomizawa Michie. Michie smiled. Takeuchi Naoko didn't seem like she was in a hurry, so I saw her very clearly twice. Also it seemed like the people around me didn't know who she was, or wasn't that interested. The event was supposed to start at 7:30, and the people were supposed to be let in at 7:20. But things didn't start on time. We got let in at around 8:00, and the show started at 8:30. It probably took much longer than expected to let all of the people in. Everyone had to open their bags for camera, recording equipment inspection. They passed out an envelope to everyone containing lyrics to the songs, a number, and Sailor Moon tissues. I was number 511 (and 512 for Tacchan). We did manage to find seats in the second floor. As expected it was mostly older boys (otaku types). But I did see some other kids and families. They allowed kids, but anyone in junior high or younger had to be accompanied by parents. All of the seats were taken up. There were people standing in the ailes in the second floor. I think there were a lot more people standing in the first floor. At 20:30, "Moonlight Densetsu" started playing. Then the two emcees came out onto the stage. They talked for 4 minutes. Then they showed the movie "Make Up Sailor Senshi". This movie was just highlights from Sailor Moon where they introduced the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen. (The animation taken from the Sailor Moon TV series.) The ED to this was "I am Sailor Moon", but a different version from the one on the CD "Mirai he Mukatte", as it was sung by Mitsuishi Kotono with background vocals by the other senshi voice actresses. At 20:50, they moved a Christmas tree onto the corner of the stage (this tree didn't have any significance) and the two emcees came out again. At 20:53, a Sailor Moon came out onto the stage. It was a girl in a Sailor Moon costume (Sailor Senshi clothes and a Sailor Moon head). Then Sailor Mars came out. Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars started arguing. The voices were done by the real voice actresses. Then Sailor Mercury came out, and told them to stop it. After a while the voices of Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus could be heard. But they (the Sailor Senshi in costumes) did not come out. Then Shinohara Emi and Fukami Rika came out onto the stage. After a little while, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Moon went to get Tomizawa Michie, Hisakawa Aya, and Mitsuishi Kotono. Hisakawa Aya yelled out and asked, "Tanoshii!!" They all wore matching jackets, very short shorts, and tall boots. The color of the boots were their respective Sailor Senshi colors. [Very nice outfit! ^_^;] They lined up on the stage (from left to right, point of view from the audience, it was Fukami Rika, Shinohara Emi, Mitsuishi Kotono, Tomizawa Michie, and Hisakawa Aya). Tomizawa Michie took the "lead" and they started talking. They talked about the past Christmas that they remembered the most. Fukami Rika: Her first trip overseas was during Christmas. She went to Sweden and visited Santa's home. Shinohara Emi: Spent Christmas Eve with two other voice actresses at another anime event. (A-ko event) Mitsuishi Kotono: When she was in high school it snowed one Christmas and she had a "White Christmas". Hisakawa Aya: At the Hisakawa home, Christmas meant Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lady Borden ice cream. When she was in grade school she went to a Christmas party at a friend's house and ate a lot of desserts. When she got home, she ate a lot of chicken and ice cream. The next day she threw up.. Tomizawa Michie: She had a "Christmas Live" event on 1993.12.23. They sang Silent Night in Japanese. They had those little sticks of plastic that light up. They were waving it back and forth slowly. Near the end of the song, Hisakawa Aya stopped waving it. Then when she noticed everyone else still waving, she quickly started. [Funny ^_^;] They talked about what they did this year. Fukami Rika, Shinohara Emi, and Mitsuishi Kotono went to Takeuchi Naoko's huge house for a pajama party. (Furuya Tohru was also there too in his pajamas, they said.) Tomizawa Michie had a good bye party for one of her band members. Since she couldn't go to Takeuchi Naoko's house, Naoko drew a picture and faxed it to her. The other girls also sent some messages/pictures. When they asked Hisakawa Aya about her Christmas, she just started singing and dancing.. They sang Jingle Bells in Japanese. There was a little bit more of talking, and the three Sailor Senshi came back on stage. Mitsuishi Kotono, Hisakawa Aya, and Tomizawa Michie made them do some silly poses along with their voices. Then the voice actresses left the stage. In the audience there were people dressed up as Santa Claus, Tuxedo Kamen, youma, and Sailor Jupiter. The emcees and Sailor Senshi remained to pass out the presents. They called out the numbers for the presents. I didn't win. (;_;) The presents were: sweatshirt x2, signed poster x10, signed tapestry x5, telephone card set x1, telephone card x2, bag x5, "Moon Revenge" CD single x10, signature board x5. At 21:35, the voice actresses came back onto the stage. They had taken off their jackets and their flashy clothes had the following colors. Fukami Rika-yellow, Hisakawa Aya-blue, Tomizawa Michie-silver, Shinohara Emi-black (or dark green), Mitsuishi Kotono-pink. They performed their new song "Moon Revenge". It's a great song! Great dance! After the song, people started yelling out "encore", but the voice actresses just gave a good bye message. Fukami Rika: Tomizawa Michie: Mitsuishi Kotono: Hisakawa Aya: Today's work was fun. Thanks! Shinohara Emi: [I forgot what they said..] The show ended at 21:43. Then there was going to be a five minute break before showing the Sailor Moon R movie. Since most of the people there had seen the movie before, some people left. Tacchan and I went down to the first floor and sat by Peter Evans (who was there as "press") to watch the movie. This was the first time that I saw the movie. It was a great movie. Maybe my favorite movie of all time. The movie ended around 22:45. After the movie, the Toei people started to clean up the stage. One of them took off a Sailor Mercury UFO catcher doll from the Christmas tree and gave it to Tacchan. / / / E N D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMIC MARKET REPORT BY CHRIS SWETT Here's an interesting message posted on CompuServe's Comic Book & Animation Forum from our favorite manga publishing gaijin and Forum Assistant Sysop Chris Swett. It describes a bit about his experiences at the latest Comic Market. It looks like he had an interesting run-in with one of our readers there! Chris sent me a copy of the printed and translated interview that the fan gave him. It turns out that this fan's name is Eiji Ohmori and he did a fantastic job on putting the translation together. It looked great! I have not been able to contact Eiji through his address on the Internet, so I hope he reads this. Thank you very much, Eiji!!! - Tom From: Chris Swett, AsstOp, 72736,433 To: all Topic: Comic Market Msg #479985 Section: Japanimation [5] Forum: Comics/Animation Date: Fri, Dec 31, 1993, 7:00:06 AM Comic Market 45 is now history. I broke my Powerbook's LCD screen on my way home from the U.S., so couldn't report from on site. My group, AMERIKARA, was joined by ANIME AMERICA, STRUSA and RUNNING INK. I sold three doujinshi, Rumic America, Twice August and Kimagure Orange College. The first two are available in remainders for $10 and $5 each, respectively. Email for address. ANIME AMERICA sold the ubiquitous AnimeCon t-shirts and sold out around 2 pm yesterday. They also leant a corner of their table to another fan from the U.S. who didn't get his registration in on time. He sold a doujinshi called TEENAGERS. STRUSA was manned by Daniel Kanamitsu, best known as Ken'ichi Sonoda's interpreter. He sold Tenchi Muyou doujinshi. RUNNING INK was manned by Robert Woodhead, who sold Bayscape videos (sold out at 1 pm). Gaijin section: AMERIKARA - Chris Swett 72736,433 Rika Takebe 101076,622 Naruto Nishizawa 101230,543 ANIME AMERICA - Takaaki Shimada >NIFTY:GCA02604 Kevin Karvonen Teri Karvonen STRUSA - Daniel Kanamitsu + 2 assistants RUNNING INK - Robert Woodhead >INTERNET:trebor@foretune.co.jp assisted by Naruto Nishizawa I was about startled out of my socks when a fan came up to me with a very nice laser-printed copy of a translation of Tom Mitchell's Anime Stuff 19 interview with me. He was a little concerned that he'd been unable to contact Tom before deciding to print them and give them away, so I told him it was ok. I'm sending one to Tom. I was more than a little shocked to find that *I* now am apparently the subject of a fan club in Japan! I was even more shocked when a reporter from Asahi Shimbun arrived to interview me! Apparently there will be something in the Culture section of the newspaper in a week or so. He's going to send me a copy. Robert Woodhead, who is often the subject of guest invitations and interviews, got some time on camera with AIDE magazine. He was a guest of honor at Daicon 6, by the way. If he hadn't sold out early, chances are he would also have been sought out by Asahi. I think Robert was happy that his tapes went quickly because he likes to go to the computer software area to meet fans of his WIZARDRY program. Comic Market was crowded this time, as the weather was exceptionally good. Attendance was around 220,000, packing the facility. I'll write more when I've rested a little. /////////////////////////////////ANIMEHEM\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Report Concerning Morphogenic Properties of Aqueous Solutions at Elevated/Reduced Temperatures on Test Subjects A through E. Authors: Forrest Smathers, Ph.D, Juno Smith, M.DD, Reginald Buck, M.DD, and Larry Johnson Our first evidence that aqueous solutions (hereinafter referred to by common name, such as "soup" or "tea") could cause morphological transformations in living tissue was brought to our attention from an unlikely source (Ref. 1). Such was our interest in studying these subjects that we wrote a research grant proposal the next day. Our adjunctive review committee was also fascinated by the source material, and gave the proposal their unconditional recommendation, as well as providing us with preliminary funds for acquiring the test subjects. The subjects themselves proved no great difficulty to pinpoint, as our source (Ref. 1) listed the address at which they would be found. We immediately packed our portable test equipment, chartered a JAL flight, and flew to Japan. Preliminary studies of the source (Ref. 1) indicated the test subjects were very excitable and prone to violence. We wanted to take no chances with these valuable experimental subjects, so upon arrival, we purchased several large reinforced containment canisters as well as a used circus cage truck for transport of the subjects to our temporary research facility in Osaka. Our initial contact with test subject A (see chart) was brief. We saw the subject in the distance at the other end of a street, but were unable to catch up with his rapid motion, which was apparently the result of a large crowd of angry people, and an elephant, in pursuit. We made no contact with any of the test subjects for three days, during which time several reports were made of huge balloons and strange lights in the sky. We have been able to make no connection between these reports and the absence of the subjects from their domicile. Chart 1 Subject Name Alpha Form Beta Form ------- ------------------ ------------- ------------ A Saotome Ranma Human Male Human Female B Hibiki Ryouga Human Male Chinese Pig C Nyuchezuu Shampoo Human Female Domestic Cat D Saotome Genma Human Male Giant Panda E Nyuchezuu Mousse Human Male White Goose Our next contact was with subject C, in Alpha form. One of us (Rogers) managed to make physical contact with the subject, but could not retain his grip. Subject C then grasped Rogers by the arm and drew him around a corner, where we could not see him. Rogers later was found wandering around Tokyo with shiny hair, idly mumbling about goat cheese. We would never manage to restore Rogers' coherency, and eventually had to send him home to be cared for in a mental institution. We decided to change our methods. Instead of hoping to encounter the test subjects away from their domicile, we would attempt to entrap them all at once, during the evening. Unfortunately, this shortcut theory proved to be just an arrogant assumption, and only resulted in extended stays in the excellent Tokyo hospital system. Short of funds, we wired back to our research office for additional money, which was quickly provided. With renewed determination, we decided to set a trap for the subjects. It would be agreed that one of us (Smathers) would approach the subjects, trying to attract curiosity. If the subject took the bait, Smathers would retreat around a corner, where the rest of us would be waiting with heavy nets and tranquilizer guns. The first opportunity to test this plan occured that afternoon. Subject D, in Beta form, sipping sake in an open air cafe, was approached by Smathers in a panda suit. Though Subject D was intrigued by Smathers' appearance, he did not follow. We can only attribute this failure to the large group of young women gathered around the subject, currying his fur and demonstrating affection. Smathers waited until evening for Subject D to leave the cafe, and then succeeded in attracting him to our pre- arranged trap site. The subject was easily caught in the nets, being taken completely off guard. We immediately sprayed hot water on the subject, who transformed into Alpha form and started ripping the nets and yelling extremely rude insults. We inflicted many tranquilizer darts on the subject, but his anger was apparently keeping the sedation at bay. We then resorted to striking him with long lengths of heavy pipe. This proved successful in subduing the subject, at least for the few moments needed to remove him to our cage truck. At this point, Subject A in Beta form, who apparently had been in hiding at the cafe and was following Subject D, caught up with us. We did not have our nets prepared, and Subject A managed to free Subject D within a matter of moments. One of us (Smith), managed to fire several tranquilizer darts at Subject A as the two of them were running away. Subject A plucked the darts out of midair and threw them back at great speed, causing Smith to begin his nightly repose several hours earlier than usual. Tired and frustrated, we returned to Osaka to rethink our approach. If direct capture would not work, and deception would not work, perhaps we should discuss our research needs directly with the subjects. To do this, we would need to capture one of the subjects' acquaintances so that we might persuade them to undergo testing. With threats (never to be realized, of course) against the acquaintance's health, we felt sure we would be able to convince the subjects to be cooperative. We recruited the assistance of a Mr. Happosai, who gladly agreed to assist us in the capture of the young woman Tendou Akane. He also generously offered to watch Miss Tendou for us, so that we would not have to reduce our research staff by having to guard her. We explained to Mr. Happosai that our threats were empty and our research was actually harmless. He merely grinned, laughed, nodded and said "of course it is." That evening, Mr. Happosai returned to our facility with Miss Tendou. Apparently, she had been sprayed with some form of quick-setting body wax while freshly out of the bath, and could not move. We were embarrassed by Miss Tendou's nakedness, and Mr. Happosai quickly removed her to the rear store-room for safekeeping. We then prepared our message to be sent to the test subjects. Deciding on the traditional form for notes of this type, one of us (Buck) came up with this text: "Wierdos: We have Akane. Submit to testing or else." Of course, we didn't specify any threats, fearing legal action. However, we felt the implication would be sufficient. We sent them this simple letter, delivered in the time- honored method for such messages: Heaved through a window tied to a brick. Smathers, the delivery man, said upon his return to the research facility that we should expect contact within moments -- he had been followed by all of the test subjects, all in Beta form, and all furious. Smathers was correct, as within seconds the north side of our facility began to shake, and a large section of the reinforced concrete wall shattered and fell to the floor. The test subjects leaped through the opening into the room with amazing speed. Subject A, seeing our coffee machine, grabbed several cups of hot coffee and splashed himself and each of the other subjects, returning all to Alpha form. The subjects then demanded to see Miss Tendou, and threatened our lives if we did not produce her right away. We explained the role of Mr. Happosai in the capture of Miss Tendou, at which point Subjects A, B and D became extremely angry and began to tear apart the room, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in moments. Subject C seemed somewhat pleased at the news, and began to approach Subject A with what could only be called "love" in her eyes, until Subject E fell to the floor in front of her, tripping her as he grasped for a lab coat and screamed at it "Shampoo! My Bride!" Subject B then picked one of us up (Smith) and threatened to tie him in a Windsor knot unless the location of Miss Tendou was revealed. One of us (Johnson) then explained the situation. Miss Tendou would not be released until we could perform various experiments on the group, including tissue samples, high-speed photography of the transformation process, MRI and CT scans of the complete body structure of both Alpha and Beta forms, and complete publication rights for the Journal of the AMA. This last demand seemed to enrage them the most, as Subject A immediately began reducing additional racks of precision equipment to tiny shards, Subject C began to convert the warehouse into a gazebo by kicking holes in the walls, Subject D found a pail of cool water, changed into his Beta form, and began to Dutch rub one of us (Smathers) with all his considerable might, and Subject E began throwing knives at all of us, but missing. We probably would have had to reveal Miss Tendou's location at that point, but it was done for us. Miss Tendou ran through the room at great speed, completely naked, with Mr. Happosai in quick pursuit, screaming "Wait a minute! Just one feel!" All of the test subjects froze momentarily, then Subjects A and B followed in the path of the escaped Miss Tendou and Mr. Happosai at incredible velocity. Curiously, however, the two subjects appeared to be yelling and striking each other during their flight. The remaining three subjects, Subject C unconcerned about Miss Tendou, Subject E completely absorbed in Subject C, and Subject D still in Beta form, remained. Subject D picked up a massive piece of concrete and threatened us with it, and motioned that we should all climb in our own cage truck, which he locked. The four of us (Smith, Johnson, Smathers, Buck) waited there for many hours. Subject D seemed fairly relaxed. Although he would occasionally step outside to look for the return of the others, he mostly watched Subject E attempting to make physical contact with Subject C, and Subject C kicking him in the face whenever he got within three feet of her. Subjects A and B eventually returned. Behind them was Mr. Happosai, bound from head to toe in thick steel cable and being led on a short tether by Miss Tendou (now fully dressed), who every few moments would smack him brutally. The subjects and Miss Tendou repaired to an ajoining conference room, and a lengthy consultation began. We heard nothing of the discussion save an occasional bellowed "idiot!" which was always followed by what could only be a slap. Subject A, somewhat worse for wear, then climbed into the drivers seat of the cage truck and drove us out. The other subjects followed in our Jeep. We drove for hours, reaching a small port on the western tip of the island. There, a medium sized boat was procured (means unknown) and our cage was placed on board. Subjects A, B and D joined the crew and bid farewell to the others. We sailed for approximately two days, apparently in a westerly direction, though we cannot say for sure. Upon reaching port, we heard what we can only assume were voices speaking Chinese. Then a large canvas cover was placed on our cage, and we were forced to endure a two week long cart ride through horribly potholed streets, steep mountain passes, and miserable swamps. Food was passed to us through a small slit cut in the canvas, and every now and again we could glimpse one of the subjects walking along side. Any attempt at conversation, however, was rebuked with a sharp stick. Late in the afternoon of the fifteenth day, the cart stopped, and the canvas was removed. All of us were required to exit the cage, and we saw before us a vast muddy marsh. Scattered here and there in the marsh were springs of hot water, from which steam arose. Subject B then grasped each of us in turn, and threw each of us bodily into different of the springs. This was the end of our encounters with the test subjects, as subjects A, B and D immediately retreated along the road at high speed. We were forced to find our way back to our research center with no means of communication, and no available cash. This took us many months. Postscript - by Sean Puckett Upon the return of the research team, the members were quickly seized and taken away. All of them will undergo continuous research into the nature of their afflictions for at least a decade, probably longer. The preceding article was dictated in Morse coded chirps by the project leader, now a grasshopper. Corrections and supplementary information were provided by his assistants, whose forms are now those of a vole, a sparrow, and a giant Chinese toad. References 1. _Ranma 1/2_, Takahashi Rumiko //////////////////////////////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 MIKADO LASER (J.C. TRADING, INC.) JAPANESE CULTURAL & TRADE CENTER 1737 POST STREET SAN FRANSISCO, CA 94115 PHONE: 1-415-922-9450 SIGHT & SOUND, LASER PERCEPTIONS, and MIKADO LASER specialize in domestic and imported laser video discs. Nikaku sells magazines, books, compact discs, laserdiscs and other anime goods. Tell 'em ANIME STUFF sent ya! IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI BBS SYSTEM INFO IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO > VALLEY OF THE WIND BBS, the official ANIMAG BBS Phone 1-415-341-5986 (CALIFORNIA, 300-9600 BAUD) /////////////////////////////////END NOTE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ "That's just like Speed Racer" - Comment made by every American seeing anime for the first time. It's almost as if it's genetically encoded. (^_^) \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Date of original publication: 3/28/1994 ANIME STUFF Copyright (C) 1994 Tom Mitchell, MIDORI COMMUNICATIONS, & Studio Midori. All rights reserved. This publication originally appears on CompuServe Information Service's Comic Book & Animation Forum. INTERNET distribution is limited to Marijan Adam. INTERNET Address :adam@venice.mps.ohio-state.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) 1987-1994 CompuServe Information Service an H&R BLOCK company. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////