Anime News

By ELIZABETH LARGE
The Baltimore Sun
03/27/2006

When the teenage daughter on NBC’s now-canceled “The Book of Daniel” turned out to be a talented manga artist selling drugs to pay for her software, adults may have said, “Huh?” But their teenage daughters probably knew exactly what manga was.

These black-and-white comics, translated from Japanese best-sellers and meant to be read back to front and right to left, are a huge hit with American teens and tweens. They can find manga (pronounced mahn-ga, with a hard G as in “girl”) in the popular teen magazine Cosmo Girl or they wait impatiently for the next book in a series to be translated and brought to a nearby Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks.

Once publishers persuaded chain bookstores (as opposed to comics shop) to carry their manga girls could find it easily.

Cori Kasura, a 13-year-old who describes herself as “a very large fan,” discovered her first manga two years ago at the public library.

“A lot of people brush them off as just a comic, and they shouldn’t,” she says. “They deal with real-world problems, and I guess I kind of like that. Of course, some of them have a magical spin.”

The plots of manga specifically written for girls, called shojo, come in two subgenres: magical girl stories, in which a Bambi-eyed heroine with a superpower saves the world, and ones with more realistic plots about unrequited love, relationships and high school angst.

But to call them realistic in the way, say, a Judy Blume novel is realistic, would be stretching it. One of Cori’s current favorite series is “W Juliet,” a bestseller published by Viz Media about a tomboy who makes friends with a beautiful newcomer to her high school only to find that he’s a boy disguised as a girl (to prove to his father that he has the talent to become an actor). Romance blossoms and complications ensue, and it takes 14 volumes to sort it all out.

At $10 a volume, that’s a lot of baby-sitting money.

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by Duke

There are very few anime documentaries out there, and most of them poke fun at the fandom instead of looking at it in a neutral light like other documentaries are supposed to do. Who knew a college kid’s final project would be the one to get things right?

For his final project, anime fan Eric Bresler had a dream: To make a documentary about anime fandom and explore the world of the otaku. After taking two years to compile research, acquire licensing rights and interview a LOT of people, Eric’s dream has come true. From cosplay to dancing to Robotech to kaiju, Otaku Unite! covers a generous portion of the anime fandom, and does so in a way that newcomers can see what everything is all about and actually be interested, while veteran fans won’t feel like they are being portrayed in a negative light.

To start out, we oddly go to a feature about monster wrestling with a look at Kaiju Big Battel (Yes, it’s supposed to be Battel). For those who don’t know, kaiju stuff is basically when you dress as a giant monster, such as in the Godzilla and Gamera films. This beginning is pretty interesting once it gets going, but its inclusion in the film seems odd. Maybe it should’ve been saved for the extras or a second volume. After that, we get the intro to the documentary and various people (including anime fans, convention chairpeople, and manga editors) explaining what the word “otaku” means, both in the literal and in the figurative sense. This is a really interesting segment, as nobody is able to give a true definition of what “otaku” means in American culture.

Next, there is a look back at anime through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, specifically Speed Racer and Robotech. The Speed Racer material is interesting because they managed to get an interview with Peter Fernandez and Corrine Orr, who voiced Speed and Trixie in the aforementioned series. Though they don’t do much anime anymore, it was interesting to hear how anime was recieved back then. Most of the Robotech material is taken up by Carl Macek, who was the head supervisor and story editor for the series (and who now works for ADV) as he explains why the changes were made, how he made them, and how it was recieved way back when. While I never watched either Robotech or Macross, this was still a really nice look into anime dubbing back into the 80’s, which is extremely rare nowadays.

Other segments on this disc include a look into Yaoi-con, the Sailor Jamboree, the very first anime convention wedding, the first Anime Friar’s Club Roast and even a look back at the supposedly-first anime convention, AnimeCon ‘91. All of these segments are relatively brief, but they get the essential details such as how each of them got started and, for most of them, where they are today. Each segment gets a healthy running time and the editors do a good job of not painting each of these things in a negative light. They could have made fun out of a wedding where over 3/4 of the people attending were cosplayers or said any number of jokes about Yaoi-con, but they let the visuals speak for themselves. There’s a lot more segments, such as visits to Anime Weekend Atlanta, AnimeExpo and Project-Akon, as well as a look at the various Masquerades and how they’re conducted.

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Representing the most up-to-date and thorough source of information for anime fans, the Tokyo Anime Center, the world’s first anime information outpost, will open in Akihabara Cross Field on March 15.

Japanese anime and games, as well as their diverse character merchandising, are renowned across the globe. In Akihabara, the largest and most advanced software market surrounding these media, a building that will become a landmark in the anime industry will open shortly.

The Center will allow anime and character fans from Japan and overseas to obtain the most up-to-date information, as well as participate in events and public radio recordings featuring creators and voice actors. The Center will also sponsor continuous events at which attendees can get their hands on Tokyo Anime Center original commemorative merchandise.

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By: Cindy Lee Mackert

A club has formed for those who appreciate anime (Japanese animation), or just want to check it out. Anime Fannatiku meets the first Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hurricane Library.

“Evilness is bad,” Hillarie Gowers, a club member, quoted from an anime. “I like anime. Anime is fun. I go because I can dress up and not be laughed at.

Natalie Daniel, a librarian clerk at the Hurricane Library, was inspired to start the group by a similar one that meets in the Charleston Library in Las Vegas, called Anime Vegas.

“I was sitting at the computer one day and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a club here where we could all get together with people who have similar interests?’” Daniel said.

She talked her co-worker, Sarah Hall, into helping her organize the club.

“We knew there would be a large fan base here,” Hall said, “because we have an extensive selection of Japanese Manga, which most animes are based on, at the library and we can’t keep them in. They’re always being checked out, especially by the high school students. When we advertised for the anime club, we received a positive response.”

Anime Fannatiku met for the first time on Feb. 4. A total of 75 people were in attendance, and some of them were from St. George and Ivins. Even Anime Vegas founder, Rich Stott, brought a group of members with him from Las Vegas to support the club opening.

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