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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.155 "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 LASERDISK ANIME GAMES Some of the laserdisk 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 laserdisk 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 P.O. Box 49543 Atlanta, GA 30359 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. [I don't know exactly how or why. I haven't seen the film. -- ed.] 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), but it is not _available_. Carl Macek was contracted to do the dubbing of both TOTORO and KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, but he did not get any distribution rights to those dubbed movies. 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 (a.k.a. Anime Kami) [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. 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 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 the best races of the world: Japanese, Indian and a little bit American. 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 o WHAT ARE JAPANESE PHONE CARDS AND PHONE BOOKS ARE AND WHAT 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.