March 1990 Pt.1 Anime Hasshin.

A bit of self-indulgent trumpet blowing as we arrive at Blog post number 50!

Now the anticipation and excitement of 'EastCon 90' in April next month is so much nearer, and the conception of UK's Anime and Manga Fans looking forward with that determination and boundless enthusiasm that will become a Fandom.

What arrived by post was “The Rose” the Newsletter of Anime Hasshin number 20, and what follows is a brief overview to help you get in to the mindset of the Fans and the US\Canadian Fandom.

Front cover: “Appleseed” Fan-Art by Matt Collins.

'Editorial' Lorraine Savage reports on Kevin O'Connell's American manga poll (April 1990), with 97 responses coming from 75% of Anime Hasshin members, the results for the Top 4 favourite translated manga are :-

Appleseed,

Nausicaa,

Lum,

Outlanders. 

The Top 6 manga that fans requested to be translated are :-

Ranma ½,

City Hunter,

Saint Seiya,

Cats Eye,

Lupin,

Five Star Stories.

Lorraine Savage also reports the membership of Anime Hasshin has swelled considerably, with so many people joining after seeing the club's details in print in fanzines\magazines “Protocluture Addicts”, the CBG (Comics Buyer's Guide), and in the translated manga “Appleseed”.

Lorraine was wanted to meet a lot of members in the up-coming Science Fiction Convention “InConJunction X” (10^th. Aniveristy of the Con) running on the 29^th. Of June to 8^1st. of July (1990), and to have an official appearance of the club at the Con.

Anime reviews in the issue: Locke (the Super man) - :Lord Leon, Venus Wars, Megazone 23 – part 3, and Gunbuster. Manga reviews: Mugen-Shinishi (by Yosuke Takahashi)

One notable feature was “Is there a Laser in your future?” by Stephen McCloy. The positive outlook of the developing format of the Laser Disk in the US and in Japan, and the boon to our hobby of Anime, with its better picture quality and a longer life than VHS tape.

[Note: Anime Laser Disks are very collectable now (2014) for there quality of image, and cover artwork that has yet to make it to DVD or Blue-ray.]

“Fans can make a difference” 

Susan Triger writes to encourage fans to write to their local independent American TV stations to air the third series of “Starblazers”, and Rob Hull urges fans to write before May 1^st. 1990 to him so he can bulk send to Harmony Gold, to spur them to continue with the Television series of Robotech II: The Sentinels.

[Note: this is an old-fashioned Letter writing campaign, much like the modern Facebook and twitter campaigns of today, a grass roots approach that can gain momentum and influence companies.]

A look back at the première on the 4^th. Of February of the Fan parody “Viva La Dirty Pair” by Pine-salad Productions, the last parody was “A Fist Full of Pasta” came out a year before.

One nice touch is the inclusion of a list of “Birthdays” (March & April for this issue) on the back page.

Information on other Clubs, Fanzines, Computer Bulletin Boards, APAs (Amateur Press Association) , Classifieds Adds, Conventions, Businesses, mini synopses, Japanese vocabulary lessons. and a Members list. With plenty of Fan Artwork that were all done in a strong Black ink

[Note: on page 18 (the back page) under Clubs was the details of “Summer Side” (contact - Alec Orrock). A good fellow, and an Anime Pen-pal of mine.]

[Note: as part of the NEWS section I supplied the Addresses of two Anime Studios – Bandai and Tatsunoko Production Co. (always nice to see you name in print)]

[Note: A synopsisis a brief summary or a condensed statement of the major points of a subject (be it Anime or Manga in our case) giving a general overall view, without opinion or review.]

About this Blog.

This is the penultimate post before number 50, having started in June of 2013 (wish me luck with more of this endeavour)!

Much of my free time is spent taking photos to record what is left of my collection of mainly 80's and 90's Anime and manga memorabilia, and cataloguing them. So far I have spent many hours photographing and cropping, and dating, and for me, and I hope you the reader I find Chronology is very important, given that these memoirs I am blogging about are 24 to 27 years ago making a factual calendar of events, publications, and Fandom life!

That is one of the many reasons for the haphazard posting each month (I am working behind the scenes.) of a minimum of four post per month, add to this the “Gallery Page” & “Collections Page” & “Video Room” uploads, and it would seem to me like having a part-time job right after I finish my full-time work!

[Note: Using the simple tool of the Date\ calendar on my computer, has been a great help when it has looked like a year either side, but matching the day and its date, and the year confirm the time stamp precisely.]

April\May 2014 I was looking back at February and March in the most part. Cross referencing adverts for comic-books from Magazines, comic-books, and Fanzines has taken its time, and a little bit distracting as well. Looking in to “Animag” the US (anime & manga) magazine for its publication date, as well as the America Anime & Manga Club “Summer Side” newsletter.

My hope in retrospect though this online diary of yesteryear is that you are able to get a good idea of what it was like or at least an overview of what influenced the UK Anime & Manga Fandom that formed in 1990. 

February 1990 Pt.5 Manga

As American imports to the UK of Fanzines and magazines on Anime & Manga were erratic at the best of times and adding to this that none at this time had sustained a regular monthly publication, comic-books became our main source of regular information, and links to communication though the 'Letters page' & 'Pen-pals' column.

[Note: Like all printed History it has been selected and approved, even so the 'Letters page' and other articles in the single issues of a comic-book, give us a snap-shot of the enthusiasm of the reader and those involved in its publication. Trade-paper-backs (Graphic-novels) tended to miss this out when you are just after the story in full.]

We still had a few on-going Manga comic-books and Anime based comic-books “On the racks” in February of 1990, such as:-

#32 of 'Lone Wolf and Cub',

from First comics.

#18 of 'AKIRA'

from Epic Comics.

#14 of Outlanders.

from Dark Horse Comics.

#5 of 'Cyber 7 Book Two',

#5 of Dirty Pair II,

#4 of Appleseed: book3,

#3 of 'Dominion'

from Eclipse Comics.

#5 of 'Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock',

#15 of 'Robotech II – The Sentinals Book One'

from Eternity Comics.

#3 of 'Baoh',

from Viz Comics.

GRAPHIC-NOVELS ON SALE IN THIS MONTH:

Appleseed: Promethean Challenge (the complete Book One1-5 ).

Dirty Pair: Biohazards (Issues1-5)

from Eclipse Comics

The Legend of Kamui: the island of Sugaru (part one)

now from Viz Comics

NEW COMICS-BOOKS

#1 of 'Cobra' from Viz Comics

#1 of Lensman from Eternity comics

[Note: Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock'. #1 - 13 issues, from October1989 to December 1990  All 20,000 copies of issue #2 had sold out of that print run!]

[Note: All publication dates are taken from published Comic-books and cross referencing their adverts of the time from my own collection, as well as doing the maths for the issues that I'm missing, as not all comic-book publishers printed the month of issue for each comic-book.]