Internet Info 1994 March

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!ra!news.pop.psu.edu!news.cac.psu.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!igor.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!pearl From: pearl@remus.rutgers.edu (Starbuck) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.info,news.answers,rec.answers Subject: rec.arts.anime: Frequently Asked Questions Keywords: monthly informative posting Message-ID: <Mar.31.22.56.45.1994.16880@remus.rutgers.edu> Date: 1 Apr 94 03:56:46 GMT Reply-To: pearl@remus.rutgers.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.anime Organization: the Worlds Welfare Work Association, Rutgers Anime division Lines: 1447 Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu rec.arts.anime.info:442 news.answers:17081 rec.answers:4695 Archive-name: anime/faq This FAQ, as well as many other FAQ's appearing on the net, is posted to news.answers. You can ftp FAQ's mentioned in this document from rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet. If you do not have ftp, send a message to "mail-server@rftm.mit.edu" with the word "help" in the body. The server will send you instructions on retrieving the files via email. THE ANIME FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS LIST ========================================= Edited by Steve Pearl March, 1994 This is a monthly list of questions that have been frequently asked in this newsgroup. If you have any questions, additions or corrections, send them to: Internet: pearl@remus.rutgers.edu or Steve Pearl CI$: >internet: pearl@remus.rutgers.edu 359 Lloyd Rd GEnie: S.PEARL6 Aberdeen, NJ 07747-1826 Changes to this posting since February, 1994: Added & expanded: Coming soon: Changes since January, 1994: - New version of JACOSUB (1.6d) - Additions/corrections to the Sailor Moon entry (Still waiting for a rebuttal!) DISCLAIMER 1: To the best of our knowledge, the editor is not associated with ANY of the companies or organizations mentioned below. DISCLAIMER 2: The opinions expressed on this post do not necessarily represent the opinions held either by the editor or any organization he's affiliated with. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS: o ANIME EXPO AND ANIME AMERICA o ANIME IN-JOKES IN STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION o DAICON VIDEOS o KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD: THE FIRST OVA AND EPISODE #46 o LASERDISC ANIME GAMES o LEARNING JAPANESE o MEGAZONE 23, ROBOTECH, AND EVERYTHING o MIYAZAKI FILMS IN ENGLISH o NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND vs. WARRIORS OF THE WIND o RANMA 1/2 "WHAT-IF"s o ROBOTECH VS. MACROSS o MATTHEW SWEET'S "GIRLFRIEND" VIDEO AND SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA o OTAKU? WHAT'S AN OTAKU? o WHAT DOES "BUBBLEGUM CRISIS" REFER TO? o WHAT DOES THE TERM "BOOMER/BUMA" FROM BUBBLEGUM CRISIS/CRASH! STAND FOR? o HEY! I HEARD THAT SONODA KENICHI DIDN'T CREATE BUBBLEGUM CRISIS! IS THIS TRUE? o WHO OR WHAT IS BEAN BANDIT AND HOW CAN HE DO THE THINGS HE DOES? o OCCASIONALLY, IN ANIME, SHORT, ROUND VERSIONS OF ANIME CHARACTERS APPEAR. WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THE JAPANESE FOND OF USING THEM? o IS THERE AN ROLE-PLAYING GAME SYSTEM FOR RECORD OF LODOSS WAR? o WHY WON'T THERE BE ANYMORE RIDING BEAN OR BUBBLEGUM CRISIS OAVS? o WHAT ARE JAPANESE PHONE CARDS AND PHONE BOOKS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH ANIME/MANGA? o TRANSLATED MANGA AVAILABLE IN THE USA o WHY DO JAPANESE ANIME MAGAZINES COST SO MUCH IN THE U.S.? o WHO OR WHAT IS THIS PUMA PERSON? o WHAT DO ALL THESE ANIME ACRONYMS STAND FOR? o PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT JAPANESE HONORIFICS AND TERMS OF ADDRESS o WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND ROBOTECH AND IT'S COMPONENT SHOWS? o HAS ANYONE SEEN THAT MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE GUNHED MOVIE? o WHAT ARE JIS KANJI CODES AND HOW DO I USE THEM? o WHAT IS THIS ANIME MUCK AND HOW DO I ACCESS IT? o WHAT DOES AD POLICE REALLY STAND FOR? o WHAT IS THIS SAILOR MOON THING, ANYHOW? o IS THE CRITERION EDITION OF AKIRA SUBTITLED? HOW IS THE EXTRA FOOTAGE? o WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT ROTTING KOR LASER DISKS o HEY! MY BGC 1-3 LD FROM ANIMEIGO IS HISSING! WHAT'S THE DEAL? o WHAT IS TURBO TITLER AND WHERE CAN I FIND IT? o WHAT TV SYSTEM DOES HONG KONG USE? o ARE MICHITAKA KIKUCHI & KIA ASAMIYA THE SAME PERSON? o IS SYLIA FROM BGC A BOOMER? o WHAT IS ANIMEIGO'S POLICY FOR RELEASING THEIR TITLES ON LASER DISC? o WHAT IS JACOSUB AND HOW CAN I CONTACT THE AUTHOR? o IS NAUSICAA WEARING PANTS? o WHAT IS "H"? o WHAT'S THIS ABOUT QUANTUM LEAP AND AKIRA? --- o ANIME EXPO AND ANIME AMERICA The short version: Anime Expo is an anime convention that was held at the Parc Oakland hotel on the 4th of July weekend 1993. It is sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The Chairman and CEO of SPJA is Mike Tatsugawa. The Chairmen of the convention is Ken Tsai and Albert Wong. Anime America is an anime/manga convention that was held at the Santa Clara Westin hotel on the weekend of 25-28 June 1993. It was sponsored by the Foundation for Animation and Comics Education (FACE). The President of FACE is Greg Scanlan. The Chairman of the convention is James Matsuzaki. For more complete information, please refer to the "Anime Convention List" (See the Resources section of the FAQ. o ANIME IN-JOKES IN STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Some of the people who work in the set design department of Paramount Pictures are anime fans, and have been able to sneak anime references in Paramount's STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION television series. According to set manager Rick Sternbach, there is at least one reference per episode. Usually these references are in computer displays or in the sets themselves. Examples include: - Japanese characters in the "ambo-jitsu" ring that Cmdr. Riker used in "The Icarus Factor". All of them are written references to URUSEI YATSURA. - In the 2nd season episode "Peak Performance", a computer display with two ships called Kei and Yuri, a reference to the protagonists of the DIRTY PAIR OVA and TV series. - A reference to the element "sonodaium", for Kenichi Sonoda (creator of GALL FORCE, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, and RIDING BEAN). Ironically enough, one of the most "obvious" anime in-jokes is not really one. The sister ship to the Enterprise, the Yamato, has the same name as the ship from SPACE CRUISER YAMATO (known in the US as STAR BLAZERS). However, Mr. Sternbach has indicated that it is only a coincidence, as both spacegoing vessels are named after the WWII Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the largest seagoing vessels ever built. (In fact, the Yamato from the anime series IS the WWII battleship, but that's another story). To the best of our knowledge, no one has done a canonical list of all the in-jokes discovered so far. [I have a partial list of stuff culled from appendix G of the Star Trek Guide. E-mail if interested.] o DAICON VIDEOS DAICON is a yearly SF convention held in Osaka, Japan. It is called DAI-CON because the kanji for Osaka can be read as "dai". (A "daicon" is also the name for a Humungous white radish, but that's another story.) "DAICON III" and "DAICON IV" were two animated shorts shown at the opening ceremonies of the 15th (1981) and 17th (1983) DAICONs. They feature the convention mascot (the Daicon Bunny, strongest Playboy Bunny in the universe) encountering everybody from the Space Cruiser Yamato to Ming the Merciless. As an interesting note, the people who made DAICON IV later went on to create the GAINAX (WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, NADIA OF THE MYSTERIOUS SEAS) animation studio. o KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD: THE FIRST OVA AND EPISODE #46 The first animated KOR ever made was an OVA based on a story from volume 5 of the manga with a beach resort being used instead of a skiing resort. For the KOR TV series that followed, the animation company and character designer were retained, but the voice actors were changed. In episode #46 of the TV series ("Okinawa Vacation"), the same story was used as for the first OVA, but the setting was changed back to a skiing resort. Most people consider KOR OVA #1 to be "White Lovers". o LASERDISC ANIME GAMES Some of the laserdisc videogames that came out in the early 80's used footage from anime films. Note that while the game discs themselves are not commercially available, the movies on which they are based on are available (with the exception of COBRA COMMAND, of course). 1) The laserdisc videogame CLIFF HANGER by Stern uses footage from two anime movies starring Lupin III, a charming thief created by manga artist Monkey Punch. The movies used were: - Lupin III: Lupin vs the Clones (a.k.a. Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo) - The Paris car/helicopter chase scene and the hanging scene were taken from this film. - Lupin III: Cagliostro's Castle - All the other footage for the game was taken from this film. Note: this film is currently being distributed in the US by Streamline Pictures. 2) The videogame BEGA'S BATTLE by Data East used footage from Katsuhiro Otomo's GENMA TAISEN (a.k.a. HARMAGGEDON). 3) The videogame COBRA COMMAND by Data East uses anime footage created (by Toei) specifically for the game. 4) The videogame GALAXY 999 used footage from Leiji Matsumoto's GALAXY EXPRESS 999. o LEARNING JAPANESE As is to be expected, all anime is in Japanese. Synopses, scripts, subtitles and dubbing all help to understand what's going on, but they can only cover a fraction of all the anime being released at a certain time. A common question in rec.arts.anime and sci.lang.japan is "What books would you folks recommend for someone who wants to learn colloquial Japanese?" The following books have been recommended by persons in this newsgroup as good sources for learning Japanese. Of course, they can't replace a live teacher in a Japanese course at your local university, or practicing with a Japanese-speaking friend (a GOOD friend, in case you unwittingly commit a faux-pas :-). Basic Japanese textbooks: BASIC STRUCTURES IN JAPANESE by Aoki, Hirose, Keller, Sakuma Taishukan Publishing Company A beginner's Japanese textbook. JAPANESE: THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE by Eleanor Jordan The standard text for college level Japanese. Yale university Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-04188-8 ESSENTIAL JAPANESE by Samuel. E. Martin. JAPANESE FOR BUSY PEOPLE (volumes I and II) by Association for Japanese-Language Teaching (AJALT) Kodansha International Publishers (Tokyo and NY) Another beginner's Japanese textbook. Recommended. Books on colloquial Japanese: JAPANESE IN ACTION by Jack Seward MAKING OUT IN JAPANESE by Todd & Erika Geers Yenbooks (Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company) A book on colloquial Japanese. MORE MAKING OUT IN JAPANESE The sequel to "Making Out in Japanese" MANGAJIN MANGAJIN PO Box 7119 Marietta GA 30065 This is a magazine with detailed panel-by-panel manga translations, along with articles on the Japanese culture. Regular features include: "Galaxy Express 999", "What's Michael", "Tanaka-kun", etc. Great for learning colloquial Japanese. Books on Japanese Grammar: AN INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE GRAMMAR AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES by Senko K. Maynard The Japan Times A book on Japanese Grammar Reference works: KENKYUSHA'S JAPANESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY NELSON'S CHINESE CHARACTER DICTIONARY Other suggestions: Get a feel of basic Japanese before figuring out the slangs and contractions. Keep in mind that even the simplest Manga assume about 7 years of constant Japanese usage. Get Japanese copies of children's classics such as Winne-the-Pooh, A Christmas Carol, etc., which are aimed for elementary/grammar school children. Read them and compare with the original English. Jordan's book has plain style Japanese starting with chapter 9. Most minor Japanese sentences are in the so-called "direct" style. Live in Japan for a while. [A bit drastic, isn't it? -- Editor] Read manga and watch T.V., preferably watch some show with subtitles. LOTS OF PATIENCE!! Learning a new language is never easy. o MEGAZONE 23, ROBOTECH, AND EVERYTHING MEGAZONE 23 (MEGAZONE TWO THREE) is a SF film about the Tokyo Megazone, a space-faring reproduction of modern Tokyo. It's inhabitants are kept unaware of the fact that this is not the real Tokyo by various means. There have been three MEGAZONE 23 films. Carl Macek (the producer of ROBOTECH) wanted to use the footage from the first MEGAZONE film for a ROBOTECH movie. The film was dubbed in late 1985, Intersound finished the production while Carl Macek was in Japan working on ROBOTECH: THE SENTINELS [a sequel to ROBOTECH which never got off the ground]. The deal was with Cannon films and when they showed it to them, they couldn't "understand" it. Since they wanted a ROBOTECH movie, they wanted "more guns, more shooting, more robots" and basically gave them two days to make a new movie. So Carl put in the SOUTHERN CROSS [a.k.a. "ROBOTECH MASTERS"] stuff in, even though he said "it's going to look terrible, Megazone is in 35mm , SC is in 16mm it's going to look terrible when it's blown up." Nevertheless he put it together and showed it to them and the execs said quote[in thick russian type accent as Carl was retelling] "Now dees is Cannon Film." PLUS, Carl had Tatsunoko animate a NEW ending (I guess we Americans can't handle anything but a happy ending). It was about ten minutes worth. And thus a test showing of ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE came out in a couple of Texas theaters back in the Xmas season, 1985, or maybe early 86, I can't quite remember. The audience reaction was so negative the film never got wide distribution. Now, MEGAZONE 23 PART II came around 2 years later. Harmony Gold was hired again to dub it for the Japanese market, for educational purposes (sorta like the Macross movie dub, except at least Intersound's actors had some semblence of talent.) I believe this was probably the last thing Macek did with HG though he might have been gone by then. Anyway, on the LD of the English MZ 23 II, at the beginning of the disc, they included a "Present For You", which basically was the new ending they did for use in Robotech the Movie without the voice track. The art styles between the new "ending" and MZ 23 II are radically different. As of yet, fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, nothing is doing with MZ23 III. -- Written by Ryan Gavigan o MIYAZAKI FILMS IN ENGLISH TONARI NO TOTORO was _dubbed_ into English (by Streamline Pictures), and later released theatrically by Troma Films. (Yes, the guys that did Toxic Avenger & Surf Nazis Must Die!) Macek did have distribution rights to LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY (though he did _not_ dub that movie himself), but that was a set contractual time, and Carl either did not or could not option more time on the distribution rights. The movie is now back in the same Japanese producers hands. -- From a posting by Robert Gutierrez [Editor's Note: An English-subtitled version of LUPIN III: CAGLIOSTRO'S CASTLE is currently showing at art and university cinemas across the US. There is no UNCUT English version of NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (see next entry for details).] o NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND vs. WARRIORS OF THE WIND In 1984, Hayao Miyazaki directed NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, a SF film based on the manga by the same name (distributed in the US by Viz Comics). This movie has been very popular in Japan and with r.a.a. readers. In 1988 New World Films released an English-dubbed version of the film, and changed the name to WARRIORS OF THE WIND. To make WoW a more action-oriented and marketable film, about 20 minutes of footage were cut from the original version, and major changes were made in the dialogue. The drastic difference in quality between the two films is used by anime fans as an example of the typical kind of gross editing done to anime features translated to English. Note that this is not a practice incurred upon by the companies mentioned under SUBTITLED and TRANSLATED anime in the Anime Resources List (with the exception of FHE). o RANMA 1/2 "WHAT-IF"s RANMA 1/2 is a TV comedy about Saotome Ranma, a teenager afflicted by a weird curse from a Chinese training ground called Jusenkyou (the land of cursed springs). There are more than 1000 pools there, each with its own curse. Ranma fell in Nyanniichuan (the Girl-Drowning Spring), where a girl drowned 1500 years ago. Because of the spring's curse, when Ranma is doused with cold water, he turns into a girl. Hot water changes her back nto a him. Several FAQs have come across, mostly idle "what-if" speculations. Here are some of the most common: Q: What if Ranma fell into another pool? Would both curses be activated at the same time? A: No. Only one curse can be active at a time. BTW, a character was introduced who, when splashed, transformed into a combination of various animals, because he fell into a cursed pool where various animals drowned together. Q: Can Ranma's curse be cured? A: Yes. In one episode, Ranma obtained a mix that turned ordinary water into "man-drown-spring" water. The water effectively cancelled the original curse, so Ranma didn't change when wet (unfortunately, the mix was a cheap imitation that only worked once). It is assumed that if Ranma were able to get to Jusenkyo, and find the real "man-drown-spring", he could remove his curse. Q: What would happen if Ranma-chan (the female Ranma, in Japanese) got pregnant? Would she lose her baby if she changed back to Ranma-kun (the male Ranma)? A: No idea. At any rate, it's very unlikely that such a thing will happen, for a number of reasons, some of which are: - Mentally, Ranma is still a man, whatever his physical form may be. - Rumiko Takahashi, the author of RANMA 1/2, doesn't write that kind of story. :-) -- With a lot of help from Theresa Martin and Ken Arromdee o ROBOTECH VS. MACROSS SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS was made a little before 1982 and was released in 1982 as a TV series in Japan. The overall popularity that MACROSS received from the Japanese audience was so astounding that the creators of the series decided to make a movie rather than another series. In 1984, MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE opened in theaters all across Japan. It has the the same basic plot as the series, but with more visual pizzazz. ROBOTECH is composed of three different series which have absolutely no connections to each other. Carl Macek bought the rights to these three series and with his team of helpers, got these three series to be combined into one story which was called ROBOTECH. The first is MACROSS as all you guys should know by now. Carl Macek massively edited the series to fit his need but still kept to the main story line that the Japanese creators made. The other two series that was part of ROBOTECH was great if their true stories were told rather than being part of the Macross saga which everyone who talks about this seems to like. -- From a posting by Kong Chung-Lin Chang [Editor's note: The other two series used for Robotech were SUPER DIMENSIONAL CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS (a.k.a. THE ROBOTECH MASTERS) and GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA (a.k.a. ROBOTECH: THE NEW GENERATION). But Kong is right when he writes that Macross is the one most people associate with Robotech.] o MATTHEW SWEET'S "GIRLFRIEND" VIDEO AND SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA The video "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet uses anime footage from the movie SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA, based on the comic of the same name by Buichi Terasawa. VIZ comics published 10 (11?) issues of the COBRA comic in English. Neither the movie (nor the COBRA TV series) are available in English. Although the pilot episode of Cobra was dubbed in English. Some lucky people have a copy. (I am not one, so please don't ask!) o OTAKU? WHAT'S AN OTAKU? OTAKU (1) Original meaning: Your house (company, organiztion, etc), used as a polite form of the second person => you (2) Meaning in early-late 1980's: An extreme fan of anime/manga/sf who lacks communications with other people and usually untidy => nerd, fanboy [Otakus used "otaku" for "you" instead of more common "anata" "anta" and that' what gave them the title of Otaku-Zoku (otaku-race)] (3) Current Usage: Anyone obssesed or overly interested with any subject <ex.> Car otaku, Gun Otaku, etc... => mania, freak (2) has VERY negative meanging and (3) still carries negative meaning, unless used between otakus, of course. :-) So use "otaku" to only other anime fans. On the net, Otaku is usually refered to a big fan of anime and/or manga. For example, I'm an Otaku. :-) --From a posting by Tonghyun "Vajra" Kim One other suggestion: Don't call _anyone_ else an otaku unless you know how they feel about the term. Not all anime fans like being called an otaku. I'm one of those who doesn't care to have the word applied to me, though I have no problems with other fans calling themselves otaku. -- Christina Callahan O WHAT DOES "BUBBLEGUM CRISIS" REFER TO? Conventional fan definition: It describes the state of technology in MegaTokyo (and the world)... Like a very big bubblegum bubble, surface tension in the city has been rising and rising, and it is about to reach a point where nothing will stop a collapse or blow-up... (ie. Boomers going rampant, etc.) Thus, it's a Bubblegum Crisis... Simple, isn't it? --From a posting by Michael Studte A Bubblegum Crisis is what happens when you blow a huge bubblegum bubble and it pops and gets all over your face and hair and won't easily get cleaned up. In other words, a wierd and yucky problem that just won't go away. Source : Toshimichi Suzuki, creator of Bubblegum Crisis. --From a posting by Robert Woodhead o WHAT DOES THE TERM "BOOMER/BUMA" FROM BUBBLEGUM CRISIS/CRASH! STAND FOR? This is a question that has plagued anime fandom for some time. Some people have speculated that it could be a phonetic reading of an acronym (Much the way Mospeada actually stands for Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation) like Boomer = B_io- or BUMA =Big M_echanical Ugly R_eplicant Metal Android But as always, Robert Woodhead has the definitive answer: "It does not stand for anything. The creators liked the feel of the English word (ie: one who makes a lot of noise, a lot of fuss) and one thing lead to another..." o HEY! I HEARD THAT SONODA KENICHI DIDN'T CREATE BUBBLEGUM CRISIS! IS THIS TRUE? Sonoda Kenichi did not create Bubblegum Crisis. He worked on character and mechanical designs for the first four episodes, and assisted on production designs on the last episode. The reason he is credited with character designs on episodes 5-8 is that character designs he did for episodes 1-4 were reused. Gooda Hiroaki and Urushibara Satoshi designed all the new characters in episodes 5-8. Sonoda is also credited with the character designs in Bubblegum Crash for the same reason, i.e., old character designs of his were recycled. Also, Sonoda was second choice for this job; he was tapped only after Artmic's first choice, Amano Yoshitaka (known for his character designs on such features as Gatchaman, Mospeada, Vampire Hunter D and Tenshi no Tamago), turned it down because he didn't want to do mechanical designs. The series was created by Suzuki Toshimichi, founder and president of Artmic, and author of the screenplays for episodes 5-7. Addendum: Sonoda started out working on Moonlight Rambler, but quit partway through, for reasons not entirely clear. Gooda Hiroaki took over at that point; Largo is his original design, for example. Sonoda also did the cover art for the videocassette aand LD editions of all eight episodes of Crisis, all the Crisis CDs, and both Hurricane Live videos, which may explain his involvement in the character design process of later episodes. As for Vision, he did all the cover art for Double Vision (see above). Also, Urushibara intended the Vision design to be based on an older version of Irene, so Sonoda's work was at least tangentially involved here too. -Michael House (AnimEigo) o WHO OR WHAT IS BEAN BANDIT AND HOW CAN HE DO THE THINGS HE DOES? The character Bean Bandit in the OAV "Riding Bean" seems almost superhuman. He seems to withstand bullets, car impacts, etc. How can he do this? 1) Bean is supposed to be a mix of all the best races of the world. So he's supposed to be genetically perfect perhaps...or superior. 2) He wears a Titanium mesh jacket lined with Kevlar. 10-20 times stronger than Kevlar alone. Thus the bullets could not hurt him. You'll note he was holding up the collar flap against his cheek to protect his head. His gloves and headband are made of the same material. 3) As one poster said Bean is Sonoda's equivalent of every Tough Guy(tm) that Hollywood has ever created. Everyone from Sam Spade to the Eastwood's Mysterious Stranger (High Plains Drifter, et al) to John MacClaine of Die Hard. They perform deeds beyond the abilities of normal men. Bean is a modern-day pulp hero, sort of a Doc Savage for the 1990s. He's not superhuman, he's not a Buma and he's not normal. He's a Tough Guy (tm)! 4) The one TRUE source, Kenichi Sonoda, was asked "WHAT _IS_ BEAN?" and he answered: "Bean's one well built brother." o OCCASIONALLY, IN ANIME, SHORT, ROUND VERSIONS OF ANIME CHARACTERS APPEAR. WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THE JAPANESE FOND OF USING THEM? That practice is known as "Super-Deforming" characters. It's a way of making even the most horrible monster into something small and cute. As far as I know, the first occurrance of this was in SD-Gundam. Nowadays, Super-Deformed characters are appearing *everywhere*. Here are a couple I can come up with, just off the top of my head. It seems to be appealing for some strange reason :-): - Ranma 1/2 Nettouhen The 'eyecatch' sequences - Video Girl Ai The postscript segments - Dirty Pair The closing credits of the 10 episode OAV series - Superdimensional Fortress Macross The opening credits (when the series was rerun recently) - Gunbuster The science lessons - Gall Force 10 Little Gall Force - Patlabor on Television The first 'eyecatch' sequences - SD Gundam OF COURSE!! - From a post by Alan Takahashi o IS THERE AN ROLE-PLAYING GAME SYSTEM FOR RECORD OF LODOSS WAR? The original RoLW was a pseudo D&D campaign, based on a much simplified verison of its rules. As its publicity grew, the gaming group, Group SNE, began to explain some of the rules at the back of their novels and RPG replays. The first attempt at publishing a complete system was the printing of the RoLW Companion in October 1989. The success it enjoyed prompted the release of volume two, which came out in June 1991, soon after the series has been animated. These books may be available at Kinokuniya or other major Japanese bookstores. -From a post by Chadwick Sheeta "the Elf" o WHY WON'T THERE BE ANYMORE RIDING BEAN OR BUBBLEGUM CRISIS OAVS? There are currently legal problems due to the recent breakup of Youmex and Artmic because they both own the rights to Riding Bean and BGCrisis jointly. And there's (currently) no way to resolve their dispute and/or the rights so there won't be any more. However, Bean has been making guest appearances in Sonoda's current manga, "Gunsmith Cats" - From a post by Michael Studte Animerica #3 implies more BGC-related OAVs (doing one for Paradise Lost, set in the BGC universe, although I don't think it's going to have any BGC characters in it). - Ken Arromdee o WHAT ARE JAPANESE PHONE CARDS AND PHONE BOOKS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH ANIME/MANGA? These are actually two different things. -Phone Cards: Ma Bell in Japan is still a national monopoly / government bureacracy. Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) charges 10 yen per time unit for local calls. 10 yen coins are an annoyance to carry around. Sort of like a pocket full of nickles. But if you stuff a larger denomination coin into a phone, you don't get change for time/money not used. Enter the telephone card. It is a cheap piece of plastic the size of a credit card with a magnetic widget inside. You buy them from a vending machine or a kiosk (in denominations ranging from 500 to 5000 yen). The green phones are (mostly) wired to accept phone cards (yes, there are different color phones depending on the type of call). Stuff a telephone card into the slot and you don't have to worry about carrying around a pocket full of nickles and the magnetic widget counts off each time unit as you use it. There cards are particularly useful for international calls. Each time unit costs 100 yen and they count off very quickly. With all these little plastic cards running around, somebody in Japan got the idea of putting pretty pictures on them. Like mountains, or rivers, or forests, or movie stars, or whatever. Certain types of fans like to collect these cards (sort of like a cross between expensive postage stamps and baseball cards). For these fans, companies print up limited runs of cards with desireable pictures on them and then sell them for double the face value (spend 1000 yen to get a 500 yen card). The fans value these cards as long as they are not used at all. So they are another anime/manga collectable. - from a post by Eric Kouba - Phone Books This is a term used to describe the various manga magazines. These periodicals are typically printed on newsprint, and contain several ongoing manga stories (which, if popular, are usually collected into collections). These magazines are VERY thick and often resemble phonebooks. o TRANSLATED AND/OR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MANGA AVAILABLE IN THE USA Some manga (Japanese comics) have been translated into English for the American market. Those manga which have spun off into anime-related projects are indicated in parentheses. [Note: "American manga" based on Japanese characters are not included. That's why CAPTAIN HARLOCK, DIRTY PAIR and LENSMAN are not listed here. Also not listed here is NINJA HIGH SCHOOL, an "American manga" that is only *indirectly* based on Japanese characters (it is a satirical blend of elements taken from ORANGE ROAD, PROJECT A-KO, and URUSEI YATSURA). Manga produced by Japanese creators in English, however, like MAZINGER, ONI & SAMURAI: SoD are included.] Antarctic Press: MANGAZINE #17-19 (All three issues contain "The Age of Hydroplanes," the serial by Hayao Miyazaki. This was the prototype for the movie, PORCO ROSSO.), STAR TREKKER Blast Books [New York]: MR. ARASHI'S AMAZING FREAK SHOW, PANORAMA OF HORROR Catalan Press: GOODBYE AND OTHER STORIES CHEVAL NOIR [Dark Horse Comics]: ANGEL FUSION by Keisuke Goto & Hiroyuki Kato in #1; IN DREAMS by Masashi Tanaka in #24-26 Dark Horse Comics: GODZILLA (TV series and lots of man-in-a-rubber-suit movies) Dark Horse Comics/Studio Proteus: CARAVAN KIDD, ORION, OUTLANDERS (OAV) and VENUS WARS (movie) Eclipse Comics: SAMURAI: SON OF DEATH [not a translation but an all-new work in English by Hiroshi Hirata, whose work was well-liked by Yukio Mishima] Eclipse Comics International/Studio Proteus: APPLESEED (OAV), BLACK MAGIC (OAV), CYBER 7, DOMINION (4 OAVs), THE LOST CONTINENT Eclipse International/Viz Comics: AREA 88 [was continued by Viz Comics afterwards] (3 OAVs, TV series), (THE LEGEND OF) KAMUI [this is not the same Kamui as the Kamui in "The Dagger of Kamui"] (TV series), and MAI THE PSYCHIC GIRL Educomics: [see also entries under "New Society Publishers"] BAREFOOT GEN (OAV, 3 live-action films & an opera) and I SAW IT Epic Comics: AKIRA (movie), FAREWELL TO WEAPONS, MEMORIES EPIC Magazine, ?/?/83: ONI ["Ogre;" not a translation, but an original story written & drawn by Go Nagai, of Devilman, Fandora, Shuten Doji & Violence Jack fame.] First Comics: LONE WOLF AND CUB (a live-action TV series & 6 live-action movies) and MAZINGER [not a translation but an all-new English-language work by series creator Go Nagai] (3 TV series & 6 movies; the first TV series was released in the USA under the name "Tranzor Z") Innovation Comics: SAZAN 3x3 EYES (4 OAVs) MANGA! MANGA! THE WORLD OF JAPANESE COMICS by Frederik L. Schodt [book]: PHOENIX [Tezuka!] (movie & a live-action film), THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES (TV series & a French live-action movie), SENJO [BATTLEFIELD; by Leiji Matsumoto], and BAREFOOT GEN (OAV, 3 live-action films & an opera) New Society Publishers [PO Box 582, Santa Cruz, CA 95061]: BAREFOOT GEN: A CARTOON STORY OF HIROSHIMA (284 pages) copyright 1987, BAREFOOT GEN: THE DAY AFTER (177 pages) copyright 1988, and BAREFOOT GEN: LIFE AFTER THE BOMB (164 pages) copyright 1989 Now Comics: SPEED RACER CLASSICS (TV series) Sun Comics: COSMOS: CHRONICLES OF PARADISE, HIGH SCHOOL AGENT, RAGNAROK GUY, RAIKA University of California Press: JAPAN, INC. by Shotaro Ishinomori [ISBN 0-520-06289-2] Viz Comics: BAOH (OAV), BATTLE ANGEL ALITA, COBRA (TV series and movie), CRYING FREEMAN (OAV series), FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (2 TV series, a movie & a live-action Hong Kong kung fu movie), GREY (OAV), GOKU: MIDNIGHT EYE (2 OAVs), GOLGO 13: THE PROFESSIONAL [also put out by two other publishers] (movie), HOROBI, HOTEL HARBOUR VIEW, JUSTY (OAV), LUM: URUSEI YATSURA (TV series, OAVs and movies), MACROSS II (OAV series), NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (movie), PINEAPPLE ARMY, RANMA 1/2 (2 TV series, 2 OAVs & 2 movies), RUMIC WORLD: FIRE TRIPPER (OAV), RUMIC WORLD: LAUGHING TARGET (OAV), SABER TIGER, SANCTUARY, SHION: BLADE OF THE MINSTREL, SILENT MOBIUS (movie), STRIKER: ARMORED WARRIOR, and 2001 NIGHTS (OAV) -- Written by Steven Feldman o WHY DO JAPANESE ANIME MAGAZINES COST SO MUCH IN THE U.S.? If you purchase your anime magazines at a Japanese bookstore like Kinokuniya or Nikaku, then you are getting your magazine for the best price short of picking it up in Japan. These bookstores usually charge $1.30 per Y100, which seems to be the standard rate for all Japanese periodicals. If, however, you are purchasing these magazines at a Comic shop, you are likely spending upwards of $15 each (with the risk that an unscrupulous shop owner might be removing the neat inserts). The reason why Comic shops are much more expensive is that Comic shops usually receive comic items at a hefty discount (around 40%). But they are getting these magazines at close to the same cost we are paying for them. So they have to mark up the cost in order to maintain the same margins. Typical magazine costs: In Japan: At Kinokuniya/Nikaku At a comic shop: $4.00 $6.00 $13 For the addresses of Nikaku and other Japanese bookstores, please refer to the Anime Resources FAQ. --Steve Pearl o WHO OR WHAT IS THIS PUMA PERSON? PUMA once on r.a.anime. PUMA write funny posts. PUMA had biggest funniest .sig! PUMA had other name -- Keith Andreano! PUMA otaku at finest! PUMA should represent us all! PUMA's fave manga: NAUSEA of the Valley of Passing Wind! Now that miasma! No wonder they wear masks! Must grow a lot of beans there! PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA! PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA! PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA! or in English: By day, PUMA masquerades as Keith J. Andreano, a former participant of rec.arts.anime. Keith lost his account, though, a few months ago. A black, black, day. --From posts by David Blume & Sea Wasp o WHAT DO ALL THESE ANIME ACRONYMS STAND FOR? GUNDAM: General purpose Utility, Non-Discontinuity, Augmentation Maneuvering VOTOMS: Vertical One-man Tank for Offensive Maneuvering MOSPEADA: Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Drive Aut GERWALK: Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive Knee joint o PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT JAPANESE HONORIFICS AND TERMS OF ADDRESS Here are the most common honorifics and terms of address. -sama Very respectful ending. Not normally used with someone's names. Used to people of superior status, like your boss, or to your guests as a host. Envelopes should be addressed with "-sama". A shopkeeper might call a customer "o-kyaku-sama" (Respected Mr. Customer). sensei A respectful term meaning "teacher", also used with physicians. Frequently used to refer to experts in a field or people in any respected occupation. Lawyers, master chefs, fashion designers, and even some manga artists are called "sensei". Sometimes used like an honorific with a name or title, as in "kouchou-sensei" (Mr. Principal, Sir). -san Usual term of respect. It can stand for Mr. and Ms., and is attached to either first or last names, and names of occupations like "o-mawari-san" (Mr. Policeman). You use it for strangers and people you don't know well, but are more or less the same social status. When in doubt, use "-san". However, never use "-san" with your own name or your family members' names. Also, it shouldn't be used to refer to famous people, since a small degree of intimacy is implied. High school girls are usually called "-san". sempai Somebody in the same general social class, but socially superior to you. "Sempai" can also be used as an honorific. Older students may be addressed respectfully as sempai, especially by girls. -kun Used by a socially superior male to a socially inferior male. Familiarly used among male students and boys who grew up together. Recently, some teachers call girl students and some bosses call office ladies with "-kun", but it's still considered a masculine suffix. High school boys are called "-kun". Girls go from "-chan" to "-san" in high school, but boys go through a period of "-kun" in between. - Calling someone by a family name alone is being very familiar (or rough). Calling someone by given name alone is less rough, but more familiar. Using no honorific when one is expected can be an expression of contempt. -chan Intimate form of address. Families that are close use it, and "-chan" is often used to, and by, very young children. Used with given names, abbreviations of given names, and nicknames, but not family names. Children who grow up together (like Madoka and Hikaru), may keep using "-chan" into adulthood. Note: to call a social superior "-chan" without reason is very insulting. Family terms are also common terms of address. (Note: One may sometimes identify a person by taking the listener's point of view, as when a man refers to himself as "father" to his children.) Referring to Addressing yours someone's yours (*) someone's grandfather sohu ojii-san ojii-san ojii-san grandmother sobo obaa-san obaa-san obaa-san uncle oji oji-san oji-san oji-san aunt oba oba-san oba-san oba-san elder brother ani onii-san (o)nii-san [Name]-san elder sister ane onee-san (o)nee-san [Name]-san These six forms of address occur a lot. Children call strangers by the above family member terms, depending on whether what type of relative they consider them old enuf to be. (A good example of this is a scene recently described in this newsgroup where a child addresses a question to a young woman as "oba-san", and she responds, referring to herself as "oNEE-san".) father chichi otou-san (o)tou-san/papa otou-san mother haha okaa-san (o)kaa-san/mama okaa-san younger brother otouto otouto-san [Name] [Name]-san younger sister imouto imouto-san [Name] [Name]-san daughter musume ojou-san [Name] [Name]-san son musuko musuko-san [Name] [Name]-san wife tsuma/kanai oku-san omae/[Name] oku-san husband shujin goshujin(-sama) anata goshujin(-sama) [Surname]-san Some ways of saying "you": otaku very polite sochira very polite anata polite, common (*) kimi informal masculine pronoun, common (*) omae very informal or rough (*) anta very informal or rough contraction temae very rough (Note: can also mean "I") onore very rough (Note: can also mean "I") kisama very rough Some ways of saying "I": watakushi very polite kochira very polite watashi polite, common (*) atakushi polite feminine contraction kotchi polite washi informal masculine contraction, used by old men atashi informal feminine contraction boku informal masculine pronoun, common, used by boys/young men (*) uchi informal feminine ore very informal or rough I've marked with a * the ones that come up frequently. Learning them will make watching unsubtitled anime more pleasant, but there's no need to memorize them, all at once. You may notice that the very rough words for "you" are often translated as curses. These are pronouns that insultingly imply the speaker's superiority. They come up often as fighting words. - From a posting by Theresa Martin o WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND ROBOTECH AND IT'S COMPONENT SHOWS? Sherman, set the Way-Back machine to 1982, in Japan. It was then that a series by name of Super Dimension Fortress Macross first aired on Japanese television, a product of Tatsunoko. After Macross ended in 1983, Tokyo Movie Shinsha's Super Dimension Century Orguss took its place on the airwaves. Orguss shared some common creators with, and had a few in-joke references to Macross. Beyond that, there was no relation. When Orguss finished its run of episodes, another "Super Dimension" show took its place: Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. This is also in 1983. Bear in mind that these "Super Dimension" shows had little in common save the title. They were not related in any way, save for the brief references in Orguss mentioned above. Megazone 23, one of the first OVAs (Original Video Animation), was released in 1984. It had the same character designer as Macross and Orguss, one Haruhiko Mikimoto. On television, a short-lived series by name of Genesis Climber Mospeada came and went. Theatrically, the Macross movie was released (its title, Macross: Oboete Imasuka has been translated as Macross: Love, Do You Remember? or Macross: Do You Remember Love). The Macross movie was more of a retelling of the Macross series, rather than a sequel. Let's wander over to North America. Sometime around mid- to late 1984, the rights to the Macross series were acquired by Harmony Gold. Originally, Macross was slated to be translated rather faithfully, and a TV-movie compilation of the first three episodes had been broadcast. However, the "golden number" for television syndication is 65 episodes - 13 weeks of daily weekday episodes. So, in order to pad out the series, Macross was reworked a little, Southern Cross and Mospeada were hastily adapted and tacked on to the end, and the 85-episode Robotech series was born, first aired in 1985. (An extra transition episode was created by editing footage from Macross and Southern Cross together.) Now things get a little murky. Sometime around 1985-1986, back in Japan, Shogakukan commissioned an English translation of the Macross movie, which was then titled Super Space Fortress Macross. Also, Megazone 23 Part II was released on video. In 1986, Macross Flashback: 2012, a 30-minute OAV, was released in Japan. This was 22 minutes of scenes from the Macross series and movie, as well as images from various Macross publications, edited to accompany music from the series, plus eight minutes of new animation, showing some footage previously cut from the movie, as well as a showing what happened to our heroes after the war. Back in the US, Harmony Gold was riding the crest of Robotech's popularity, and had started production on Robotech II: The Sentinels and a Robotech movie. Sentinels was to be a brand-new series of 65 episodes, written in North America and animated in Japan, for North American broadcast. For a variety of reasons, this was never completed, and as a consequence never released on television. The Robotech movie was a re-edited Megazone 23, combined with footage from Southern Cross, plus a 12-minute happy ending, comprised of new animation commissioned from Japan. The movie was barely released (a few test screenings and a showing at the Los Angeles Animation Celebration) before vanishing from the big screen altogether. Back to Japan: Megazone 23 Part II is translated to English with Japanese subtitles, for use as a Japanese teaching aid. The 12 minutes of new footage for the Robotech Movie is included on this video, which was released as Megazone 23 Part II: Foreign Edition. A quick hop back to North America - in 1987, Super Space Fortress Macross makes it to North American shores - minus 18 minutes of footage - as Clash of the Bionoids. In 1988, seventy-six minutes of completed footage from Sentinels was compiled and released on video. In 1992, Macross II - a sequel to the Macross movie - is released nearly simultaneously in Japan and the United States. --From a posting by Emru Townsend o HAS ANYONE SEEN THAT MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE GUNHED MOVIE? A. The live-action Gunhed movie is about ninety minutes of B-movie science fiction mind candy. The interesting aspect of it is that the dialogue is in both Japanese and English (The English has Japanese subtitles). Believe it or not, it is available on LD. Try any place that deals in anime LD's, but especially those in the Resource Guide. The video you saw is by the Vancouver industrial group Front Line Assembly who purchased the rights, for about $10,000, to use the movie footage in their video, "Mindphaser," which is available on their Tactical Neural Implant album. In return, the Japanese are free to use the "Mindphaser" video to demonstrate Surround sound tv's in their video showrooms. The agent responsible for this video arrangement is best known for his work with Nettwerk videos, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility to see another joint agreement with another Nettwerk band. Unfortunately, FLA has not yet released "Mindphaser" to the home video market. Other related material includes a three volume comic by Viz and follow-up graphic novel as well as a PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 game just called Gunhed. In North America, the TG 16 title is Blazing Lazers. o WHAT ARE JIS KANJI CODES AND HOW DO I USE THEM? For everything you ever wanted to know about JIS kanji codes, and a list of programs that can use it for many kinds of computers, anonymous ftp pub/JIS/japan*.inf from ucdavis.edu, or pub/anime/lyrix/JIS.inf from romulus.rutgers.edu. I [Steve Pearl] am willing to email it to you upon request if you cannot ftp. (From a posting by Theresa Martin) o WHAT DOES AD POLICE REALLY STAND FOR? DOES IT STAND FOR: a)Advanced Defense Police ^ ^ ^ b) ADvanced Police ^^ ^ c) About-to-Die Police ^ ^ ^ According to Animerica, the answer is: a) Advanced Defense Police (per ANIMERICA #0) ^ ^ Of course according to the computer terminals in "Scoop Chase" (BGC8) it's ADvanced Police. ^^ ^ Given the Japanese people's famous accuracy and consistancy in using English, it is quite possible that both A & B are right. o WHAT IS THIS ANIME MUCK AND HOW DO I ACCESS IT? Well, since there have been several requests on how to get to AnimeMUCK, here is a simple way to get there. First off, you need to be able to use "Telnet" or have a program called "TinyFugue" (Commonly refered as 'tf'), which still uses Telnet to connect to the muck. Now, type in 'telnet' and you should get 'telnet>' prompt. For some of you, you might have to type in the following, 'toggle crlf' so you will get line feeds after your returns. If you do not get those linefeeds, you will not be able to do much until otherwise. After doing that, type in, 'open anime.tcp.com 2035' or for those of you who do not have a name server, type in, 'open 128.95.10.106 2035' >From here on out, it is the MUCK. Now it would be suggested that you get the MUCK documents from either piggy.ucsb.edu or glia.biostr.washington.edu. They have a document called mudenc.txt and mudref.txt. Those two files tell you a little on how to get around on a muck and how to MUCK. Also, for those of you who wish to program on a muck, you might want to get the following text files from the sites: mufman, muftut, mufref. There is also 'info new.muf' and 'info new.prims' on the muck for the TinyMUCK 2.2fb4.2f for the FB server's primatives that tend to make a few more things easier (Or harder) for the programmer. For those of you who are connecting as guests, here is some simple commands to know before you get discouraged... SAY <Message> or "<Message> - Say does not have to be in capitals. This will allow you to say something to people. WHISPER <Person>=<Message> - This will allow you to say something to a specific person. Only that person will here it, but the person must ALSO be in the same room. POSE <message> or :<message> - This will allow you to pose something. To best show what a pose is, here is an example: Priss types in: :waves hello to you. It appears as: Priss waves hello to you. PAGE <person>=<message> - This will allow you to send a message to a person who is not in the room you are in. LOOK [<object|person|exit>] - By typing 'look', you look at the room you are currently in. (One word of warning, for those of you who are running on TELNET, there will be NO WORD WRAPPING, and if you are typing in a busy room, your typing will be mixed in with it. Sorry, there is nothing I can tell you how to avoid this except maybe sneaking TF onto your account. CaveMUCK's Hawkeye or CaveMUCK's Jingoro at cave.tcp.com 2283 can tell you where you can find tf for your account.) Looking at a person/object/direction will show whatever they just happen to describe themselves as. These are just the really basic commands to help you out on exploring. Right now, I can not give you a detailed map of AnimeMUCK since one, I am not a good Mapper. :) So it is best for you to just poke around and take a look for yourself. There are a few places that are not quite done yet, since we are fairly new. But this should be enough for you to see what to do. (From a posting by Priss) o WHAT IS THIS SAILOR MOON THING, ANYHOW? Sailor Moon is a Bandai television series initially aimed at 14 year-old girls. The main characters are Tsukino Usagi, Mizuno Ami and Hino Rei (true through episode 21). Usagi is a ditzy blonde with looong ponytails and was the first of the girls to become a "se-ra- fuku bishojo senshi", or sailor-suited cute girl warrior (at this point the character designs/costumes began picking up male fans). Ami and Rei joined the team in episodes 8 and 10, respectively. Kino Makoto is supposed to join the group at episode 25. In episode 1 Usagi is given a brooch that can transform her into a super- hero dedicated to fighting the forces of the "Dark Kingdom". Her costume is an abbreviated, and I *do* mean abbreviated, version of her school uniform. Her superhero name is Sailor Moon. Ami becomes Sailor Mercury and Rei becomes Sailor Mars. Makoto will enter the series as Sailor Jupiter. The girls gain special attack powers that derive from the kanji that spell the planet their name represents (their real names are spelled with the same kanji, by no coincidence). Thus, Tsuki-no Usagi is Sailor Moon and throws her crescent-shaped tiara (which glows and acts like a killer frisbee). Sailor Mercury (Mizu-no Ami) can hurl bubbles of fog to confuse and disorient. Sailor Mars (Hi-no Rei) throws fireballs. Sailor Jupiter (Ki-no Makoto) Lightning. She calls it "Supreme Thunder". She uses a deadly whirwind of roses in the manga. The series is campy and parodies a lot of different series. One episode has the team visiting an animation studio. I think most of its appeal is in its humor and its cult-like following. Great anime it isn't. Great fun it is. (From a posting by Chris Swett with corrections by Robert DeLoura) o IS THE CRITERION EDITION OF AKIRA SUBTITLED? HOW IS THE EXTRA FOOTAGE? A short review of the Criterion Collection AKIRA: - The film print was a theatrical print. As such, it has such things as reel change marks and scratches which wouldn't be present on a virgin print. One would hope Streamline Pictures had provided a better print to Criterion. - The audio (save for the dubbing, that's a completely different issue) is quite good. The surround effects (particularly in the Council meeting scene) sound better in the Japanese soundtrack than in the English one. - The supplements (described below) are about par for Criterion. One caveat: they mispelled "manga" as "magna" throughout the supplements (a text note with the disc explains this as well). Contents of the Criterion Collection AKIRA laserdisc: - The movie (124 minutes long) in CAV format - English soundtrack in digital tracks, Japanese soundtrack in analog tracks - Supplements (all supplements are in the disc itself in CAV format): - Japanese and English trailers for the film - A description of the various stages of the production of the film (the AKIRA manga, storyboards, character model sheets, layouts and backgrounds, sound production, pencil tests, cel production, photography). Apart from being an excellent description of the process of making an anime film, this section contains a never-animated storyboard for a sequence describing exactly how the "Akira Event" initiated WWIII. - The first issue of the Epic translation of AKIRA, both in full-page and "video comic" format. The latter is a presentation of panels of the comic, with fades, sweeps, and other special effects to show transitions between panels. I don't think I can really describe it. - Thousands of pencil tests, chara and mecha designs, and storyboards. What the laserdisc doesn't have: - Extra footage (there never existed any extra footage) - An actual animation cel - Subtitles (or Closed Captioning) --From a posting by Enrique Conty o WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT ROTTING KOR LASER DISKS The Japanese KOR OAV Memory Box set has a problem with Laser Rot. Both the individual OAV LDs and the Series LDs are fine. o HEY! MY BGC 1-3 LD FROM ANIMEIGO IS HISSING! WHAT'S THE DEAL? From Robert Woodhead: There was a problem in the mastering of the BGC 1 LD that resulted in noise-reduction processing not being applied. The result is that some people may notice a small amount of hissing on the soundtrack in quiet moments. The subsequent BGC 2-4 LD's do not have this problem. The disc has been remastered and all discs currently shipping do not exhibit the problem. 3M has provided us with a limited number of replacement copies, and while supplies last, we will replace discs for those who can hear the hiss (old fogies like me with rotten ears can't, for example). Just call Janice at 919-251-1850 for a Return Authorization Number and complete details. o WHAT IS TURBO TITLER AND WHERE CAN I FIND IT? TurboTitle by Robert Jenks, is an Amiga program for doing subtitles. You can find it in the Fish collection of Public Domain/Shareware programs. It is on Fish 530, v0.80. And I also recommend getting one of the Fish database programs: Aquarium, KingFisher, or Fishcat. You can get Fish disks via ftp at grind.isca.uiowa.edu or uxc.cso.uiuc.edu o WHAT TV SYSTEM DOES HONG KONG USE? Although you can obtain a reasonable selection of videos in NTSC in Hong Kong, the offical broadcasting standard is PAL. To my knowledge all TV Stations in Hong Kong transmits in PAL. NTSC equipment and software is available there probably because of their close proximity to Japan, and their fascination with new technology (and Karaoke) o ARE MICHITAKA KIKUCHI & KIA ASAMIYA THE SAME PERSON? At Anime Expo '92, Mikimoto Haruhiko stated to the effect that although they're not friends, but he does know him (Kia) and that Kikuchi and Asamiya are the same person. Another thing to consider is that there are Newtype calendars that, have Silent Mobius images that say (in big bold letters) Mitchitaka Kikuchi, and then in little tiny letter Copyright 1991(?) Kia Asamiya. o HOW MANY RUMIK WORLD OAVS WERE ANIMATED AND WHICH ONES WERE THEY? (dedicated to Bill Moakler) The Rumik World OAVs are: Fire Tripper Laughing Target The SuperGal One Pound Gospel Mermaid's Wood Please note that The Samurai is not among them. It was not done by Ms. Takahashi and is therefore not in any way a Rumik World story. o WHAT IS IRC? A great way to waste HUGE amounts of time. Seriously, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat (or something like that). It's basically a multiline (unlimited, I guess) computer CB chat system that uses the Internet network. For the serious anime fan, I suggest checking out: /join #anime! or /join #anime sometimes people are on /join #otaku If you want to be classified among Chun-Li's "otaku-elite", IRC is a must! (I love talking to the lucky French about how they get to watch Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2 in French on TV...drool...) o WHY DOES THE AUDIO IN THE STREAMLINE NADIA TAPE SOUND SO BAD? The opening sequence has been redone. This is what Carl had been explaining as what happened: Toho sent Carl VHS copies to examine "before buying", and then sent the 16mm masters for producing the dubs. Those masters did not contain the pre-title sequence. After repeated attempts trying to get the master, the time ran down to where there was only a couple of hours before Nadia 1 was to be duplicated. At the last minute, Carl took the VHS copy, blew it up to D2, recorded the lines HIMSELF, turned down the audio on the original trying to get the original dialogue as low as possible, without really losing the music as much as possible. Carl also said that he still never has gotten that master (as of AX92), and he found the proper music track (right from the BGM CD), took out the original sound entirely, replaced it with the CD BGM track, had a "real" actor record the dialogue. He also stated this would be what would be coming on LD. As well, he said the LD would have 4 episodes, shown in movie format, with only 1 OP and 1 ED sequence per disc. --From a posting by Ryan Gavigan o IS SYLIA FROM BGC A BOOMER? The evidence is as follows: BGC #1: In a flashback, Sylia gets a data unit from her dead father which, when read on a computer, instantly downloads his knowledge into her mind. In #3, Meison reviews similar information (with pictures of Sylia added). BGC #6: At the end, Largo/Meison says that he and Sylia are both of the same kind. BGCrash #3: Largo remarks to Sylia that "you, like me, are a lifeform that is neither human nor boomer, but superior to both. That is why I should have killed you twelve years ago, along with Dr. Stingray".... However, some fans don't accept Crash as canon because of continuity problems and overall low series quality. Less likely evidence: Sylia has a somewhat unemotional personality. (But scientists are often portrayed that way anyway.) Mackie lusts for Sylia. (This _could_ mean that they are not related, but probably has more to do with teenage hormones.) It is generally believed that Sylia is at least enhanced somehow; whether or not she's actually a boomer is unknown, as is Mackie's status. (Note that Sylia's existence as a child does _not_ mean she isn't a boomer; the 33S boomers in #5 and #6 were made of flesh and blood and could heal, so boomers that grow aren't very far-fetched.) - submitted by Ken Arromdee o WHAT IS ANIMEIGO'S POLICY FOR RELEASING THEIR TITLES ON LASER DISC? Our choice of what comes out on LD is guided by two main factors. 1) Our estimation of how successful the LD would be (in other words, will it sell at least 1000 copies) 2) Our internal resource limitations (money, and more importantly, staff resources). We have limited resources and LD's chew up a lot more money and time than tape releases do. We would LIKE to release everything on LD. We are committed to releasing all of the UY Movies on LD as long as they each sell 1000 units, and we are working hard to broaden LD marketing out of the Otaku market segment and so up the sales, so we expect this will be a trivially easy goal to reach. I would note that every product of ours more than a year old with the exception of BGCrash is out on LD or scheduled to come out, so we are not doing all that badly. -- Robert Woodhead o WHAT IS JACOSUB AND HOW CAN I CONTACT THE AUTHOR? JACOsub is a shareware package for doing (hopefully) professional video titling work on the Amiga. It is not a finished product; at the moment it only plays timed scripts. It does not have its own timing or editing capabilities. The script format is probably the most powerful and flexible one out there, and the program's capabilities (non-sequential, overlapping events, multi-buffered display, on-the-fly time adjustments) make for quite a productive program despite its lack of timing/editing. Version 1.6d is the current version and is available on ftp.ics.uci.edu. The Support BBS for JACOsub is Anime Central, fido address 1:363/137, phone number (407) 645-2241, up to 14,400 baud. There is a file area that contains the latest version of the software, plus several JACOsub scripts that users have contributed. The current version is JCOSUB14.LZH, and may be file-requested through fidonet. The author of JACOsub is Alex Matulich and he can be reached at alex.matulich@oau.org or alex%bilver@peora.sdc.ccur.com or even ...uunet!bilver!alex or bilver!alex@uunet.uu.net might work. o IS NAUSICAA WEARING PANTS? YES, DAMMIT!! <ahem> Yes, she's wearing tan-colored tight pants. In the sequence with the Ohmu chasing Yupa, you can even see the seam lines. - Enrique Conty o WHAT IS "H"? The 8th letter of the alphabet? Seriously, "H" (echi/ecchi) is a Japanese slang term for "perverted." It derives from the letter H, which is the first roman letter in the American spelling of "hentai," which is the Japanese word for "perverted." (more or less) o WHAT'S THIS ABOUT QUANTUM LEAP AND AKIRA? There was going to be a "Quantum Leap" ep in which Sam leaps into an animated character, and the animation was to be done by Katsuhiro Otomo of "Akira" fame. Sam was *not* going to be leaping into Akira. If you saw clips of "Akira" on any NBC promos during the Olympics, they were probably put there for the benefit of anyone familiar with Otomo. The actual ep will consist of original animation, animation that probably didn't exist at the time of the promo, hence the Akira clips. (Consider this: Do you really think whatever Japanese company that owns the rights to Akira *and* Streamline will let NBC meddle with "Akira"? Yeah, right.) Now that Quantum Leap is cancelled, the only prospect for new Quantum Leap adventures is a possible movie a few years from now, and it is doubtful that this will be done using the animation concept. Oh well. -Roderick Lee <>