 |
From: David Hattinger (akira@utah-inter.net)
Hello,
I just finished looking through the new copy edition of EX
(2.7) and I would like to say I was very pleased with the
article "Beyond TV Safety". I found it to be well written,
informative, and even helped me with some of my own problems.
(The few there are... ha right) And was wondering if you would
ever be willing to add a user art section where you would
display readers art. (surprise surprise) And maybe give
criticism on the work, I know that many people would find this
useful to the development of their skills. Also it would be a
chance to sample the artwork from more than your local area
without going to a con or purchasing an over priced magazine from
the local supermarket or news stand. If manpower would be a
problem I would gladly donate some of my time and skill to this
cause or to EX altogether.
I'm glad that you enjoyed Scott's column. He was a
little afraid that it was too serious, but I knew that it would
be a hit with all the anime fans who like to draw.
As for adding a reader art section, I'm not sure that
we will be able to do that anytime soon. Especially if it
involves critiquing the art. After all, Mr. Frazier is the only
person who is a professional and he is a very busy fellow.
There are many pages out there that deal with drawing
in the anime style. You may want to check out the Anime Web Turnpike for more
information.
From: Steve Murdock (SMURD@ATLANTECH.NET)
I just gotta say how much I enjoyed "The Common Experiences of
the Anime Fan" (vol. I, issue 3). I laughed and laughed...
I am extremely new to the anime world (I saw TENCHI IN LOVE and ROUJIN
Z last August on the Sci-Fi Channel and was hooked), but
I have some characteristics that are perhaps not so typical:
I'm 40 years old. Not only am I old enough to remember ASTRO-BOY, but I was a raving ASTRO-BOY fan. (Not to mention SPACE ANGEL and the Kit & Gerry Andersen
Supermarionation shows like FIREBALL X-15
and STINGRAY. Please tell me some of
your readership knows of these, and not just as historical
artifacts!) So if any of you reading this hear that question
about being "too old for cartoons", tell 'em, "Well, there's
this old fart who wrote to EX, he's 40 and HE watches
them..."
I grew up in the Army; my father was an officer until I was
21. I lived a good chunk of my childhood outside of the
continental U.S: in Germany and in Hawaii, where whites are a
distinct minority. This kind of experience predisposes one to
curiosity about, and acceptance of, other cultures.
I am a translator by training (in German); I suppose the
transition to interest in Japanese was sorta natural for my
generation. (Loved the Fred Schodt interview, by the way.) I
have a laminated chart of hiragana and katakana that follows me
everywhere. It didn't take long to acquire a burning desire to
hear the original language versions; dubs are truly undesirable,
and besides, not as fun! (I can give you a great example: I was
in a theatre in Atlanta watching the (subtitled) Werner Herzog
film AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD. Klaus
Kinski (the title character), responding to a demand to rejoin
Pisarro, his commander, shouts, "Shit on Pisarro!!", which the
subtitles rendered, "Forget Pisarro!" I laughed out loud, with
my companion asking, "What'd he say?!")
Thanks, David. I'm doing my part to turn others on. I have a
5-year-old daughter whose favorite video is TONARI NO TOTORO (she's a bit young for AKIRA!). Still, I'm in the interesting
position of being surrounded by twenty- and thirty-somethings—college
grads all—who know nothing about this art form, much
less have any idea of its subtlety. Just the other day I saw
the PATLABOR II movie (the only one I've
found). I can't forget the scene where Nagumo arrests Tsuge,
with the close-up of one of her hands locking a handcuff around
one of his wrists, and his remaining free hand touches hers
lightly; she intertwines her fingers with his—for just a
moment—before fastening the other handcuff... I heard my
Western round-eye sensibilities gasping, this is a cartoon?
I have also just started to explore the online anime/manga
links; this is simply the most professional one I've seen
(I'm a translator by training but I do electronic publishing for
a living), and I think a general stand-out in terms of HTML
design. Please keep up the good work!
I've been reading your on-line magazine for a number of issues
now, and find it to be the most knowledgable source of
information I've yet to see on anime and manga—particularly in
regards to untranslated material.
However, I'm currently at a bit of a loss, and have a question
I'm hoping you could answer: Recently, it seems as if all of the
Japanese-language video stores in our area have stopped carrying
any but a few of the TV anime shows—and the few new shows they
are getting are primarily aimed at the youngest audience (i.e.,
CHIBA MARUKOCHAN). Has something happened
to cause this change that you know of? (The storeclerks don't
seem to know what's going on, either..)
Any information or input you may have would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks for the kind words. It is interesting to me
how the older issues still garner as much attention as the newer
ones. I guess that's the point of having an archive on the web.
I wonder how many new EX readers read issue 1.1 through the
current issue all in one sitting?
Certainly, as the spread of anime continues, the idea
of the "typical" fan will change. I remember my early club days
when it was mostly college-age guys, a scant few girls, and a
couple of (gasp) married people! But then I look around at
places like Anime Expo, where people of all ages are enjoying an
art form that has mesmerised so many and continues to
enthrall.
And I have the answer to your last question.
Recently, the Japanese government decided to start taxing all
these video tapes of Japanese television that we rent here in
the United States. The results for the U.S. fans have been
bad--some video stores have raised their prices by as much as $1
per tape. But that's not the worst of it. Many local video
stores have decided it would be easier to just stop carrying
these tapes altogether. What this means is that U.S. anime fans
will have to wait for the new shows to come out on laserdisc
before they can see them. (Or quickly make friends with people
who own VCRs in Japan). Either way, it makes getting new TV
anime more difficult.
From: Gianluca Lazzaroni (lazz1@popd.ix.netcom.com)
Dear Sirs,
I am a LUPIN III fanatic since
I was a kid. Reading your
wonderful article on the web I was wondering if I can find this movie in Los Angeles, or if you can help me
get a list from the video company or the distributor. Any information will be an
enormous help.
Thank you.
I'm afraid I'm not sure which
LUPIN film you are
talking about. However, if you live in Los Angeles, you should
have little problem finding it. Just find a Japanese Video store
(such as Video Tokyo or Video Jun or what have you) and they
will most likely have it sitting on the shelves. Most of the
Japanese video stores I have seen in L.A. have a
substantial LUPIN
collection.
From: Giuseppe (gmeniconi@pelagus.it)
Hi! My name is Giuseppe. I'm Italian and I'm a great anime/manga
fan, especially sci-fi series. Firstly congratulations for your
mag, I found a lot of interesting informations on it. Here, in
Italy, we've got RANMA 1/2,
STREET FIGHTER II V, RAYEARTH, SAILOR MOON,
the first season of SLAYERS, and good old
LUPIN III on the air, all of them broadcasted by
national networks. Some local networks broadcast other anime
series such as URUSEI YATSURA. This could
be called a good situation, and probably came from the
outstanding success of manga comics in Italy in the last two
years, but all of these series are censored, sometimes brutally
censored, and adapted for Italian public with strange
interference, e.g. italianising or westernising all the
character's names. Is the situation the same in U.S.? Furthermore
I'm part of a group of Italian fans of MOBILE
SUIT GUNDAM series. The persons in charge of Italian
anime companies tell us that they would like to buy rights
for those series, but they're too expensive. What about the
situation in North America?
Greetings and thank you for all.
Yes, sometimes anime is censored or altered when it is
broadcast on American television. While I don't follow the
American DRAGONBALL Z that closely,
friends who do tell me that much has been cut out of the
series. The same happened with SAILOR
MOON during its run on U.S. TV.
And yes, sometimes the names of the characters are
changed as well. Usagi became Serena, etc. I think it
depends on what the producers of the show want to do. While
many of the characters had their names changed in the English
version of SAILOR MOON, most of the names
in DRAGONBALL Z remain unchanged.
And to answer your last question, no one in the United
States has bought the rights to the GUNDAM franchise. One possible reason is that
there is so much of it that people would not know where to
start. Do you start showing MOBILE SUIT
GUNDAM, which begins the story but has dated animation,
or do you start with something more recent, such as GUNDAM W? Of course, since all GUNDAM is produced by Sunrise, it's not going
to come cheap, either, as they have a history of asking for very
large licensing fees. So there are no immediate plans for any
GUNDAM in the U.S. thus
far.
From: Borhyas Lee (h13lee@ucsd.edu)
First I was wondering how many major anime studios there are in
Japan. Second, I was wondering how many titles Gainax Studios
released so far. It does not seem a lot, although the few are
commendable. Last, I wanted to know how Anime is accepted in
Japan. Is it treated like a treasured art or is it taken for
granted like Disney and WB cartoons or even Hollywood films that
come out every month in the US? To me, Disney is just...there
and I don't find it too special, although I do respect their
industry and art. Living in LA, near Hollywood, I am numb to
the many movies that found their way to the theaters and I
usually ignore them. However, I find that for anime, I long to
watch every single one and watch as many different kinds
possible if I could get a hold of them.
Thanks you for replying. I really appreciate it.
P.S. Great site. I'm glad EX is there to inform the fans of
the latest breaking news.
GAINAX has released WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, NADIA OF
THE MYSTERIOUS SEAS, OTAKU NO
VIDEO, GUNBUSTER, and of course
EVANGELION. It is true that they are not
one of the most prolific studios in Japan, but they do work that
is popular with the anime fans.
The acceptance of anime in Japan is not an easy
question to answer, especially in this limited space. While
anime is a large part of the Japanese popular culture, that does
not mean it is universally revered by all Japanese. Sure, most
will find a place in their hearts for the nostalgic characters
of their childhood, such as TETSUWAN ATOM
or anyone from SAZAE-SAN or even LUPIN III, but anime is not regarded as a
"national treasure."
Since they are recognizable, they are used in
advertising. LUPIN and company sell gas.
SAILOR MOON had her own brand of fish
sausage. The list goes on.
Anime, like any other industry, has its good and bad
points. It is not above reproach, but it is certainly not at
the bottom of the barrel, either. For the Japanese, it's just
something that's part of their culture. Whether or not they
choose to indulge in it is up to each individual. And most fans
are teenagers or young adults. After a certain point, many
people "give up" watching anime. And then again, there are
those that do not...
From: Michael Tam (miya-san@geocities.com)
I hope you guys at EX don't get frustrated at replying to
questions all the time, but I would like to know a few things
that I haven't been able to find out myself.
I was wondering whether or not EVANGELION:
DEATH AND REBIRTH, THE END OF
EVANGELION, and MONONOKE HIME are
going to be released here on VHS, DVD, or LD anytime soon. I
was in Japan when they were being played in the theaters, but
never got around to see them because I was shopping for anime
models, LD's, etc... at the time. (Quite frustrated with myself
now.)
Also I heard that an AH! MEGAMI-SAMA movie is
coming out in Japan. Will that come here as well, or am I just
hoping for too much?
One last question. Does anybody know why the heck anime
LD's/VHS tapes cost so much in Japan?
Whether or not these films are released domestically
depends on whether an American company licenses them for release
in the United States. It is currently rumored that both of the
EVANGELION movies have been licensed, but
not by whom. Also, Disney has U.S. distribution rights to MONONOKE HIME, as well as almost all of the
Ghibli Library. Currently, whether they are going to release
the film theatrically is in question, but most likely a video
release will happen. No date has been set, though.
The AH! MEGAMI-SAMA movie is
not due out in theaters until next summer in Japan. While it
may be licensed for a video release, a theatrical release is
very doubtful.
Videos and LD's cost so much because the cost of
living in Japan is higher--everything is more
expensive.
From: Neobolts (NeoBolts@aol.com)
Hello EX staffer that answers the mail,
I just wanted to say that I enjoy your site. But the real reason
I am writing is to gain some insights on how to find out what
import CDs are available and how to acquire them. One particular
CD that caused these questions to arise: While the EL HAZARD TV Series (aka THE WANDERERS) is new
to the U.S., it has already had its run in Japan. Finding out
(a) if a soundtrack to the TV show exists and (b) how to get it
here in the U.S. if it does exist, is a seemingly impossible
task. Your insights please.
(Hmm, I may have to stop answering questions that
sound like they're sent in by pieces of hardware)
Well, of course there is a Japanese release of the
EL HAZARD TV soundtrack. However, I
called over to the folks at Pioneer and they told me that an
American pressing was in the works and should be available in
February of 1998. If you can't wait that long, I suggest you
try mail ordering the import CD from one of the anime mail order
stores such as Nikkaku Animart, Books Nippan, or Alt.Ant (the
UCI anime bookstore).
|
![[LETTERS]](/file/35716/EX CD Rom.iso/issue2_8/images/section_letters.gif){kind=small}
