From: egamboa@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Noel Gamboa)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: Re: AnimeUK #4 comments
Date: 21 Dec 92 09:05:17 GMT
Organization: Operation X / UC Herald

gavigan@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Ryan P. Gavigan) writes:
 
> There have been many praises thusafar for the Viz publication,
> Animerica.  However, much of the format and writing and art of
> Animerica seemed hollow, of surface value, and of little emotion.
 
conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (E. Kontei) writes:
 
> I have to disagree with Gaver-sensei on this one.  From the one issue
> I've seen (#2), AnimeUK strikes me as a very slick-looking magazine
> with terrible articles.  The artwork is beautiful, yes, but EVERY
  [text deleted for brevity]
> In contrast, Animerica had (save for an exception or two) very
> informative and up-to-date articles.
 
     I bought Animerica's premiere issue partly because of this
discussion on r.a.a.  I expected Animerica to be a very accurate anime
magazine because of Viz's connection with Japanese publishers.  It was a
big disappointment, though, as early as page 3.  Some semi-random
comments follow:
 
* Anime News Dateline Japan
 
  The Gundam 0083 movie (Zion's Fading Light) and the Ranma 1/2 movie
  were described as two of "the three biggest anime hits of the summer."
  The truth is, the Ranma 1/2 movie was a flop, while the 0083 movie
  was a limited release and was shown early in the fall.
 
  The 0083 blurb starts off with "Two years after the One-Year War..."
  It's *three* years.  The article claims the movie was "co-written by
  Yoshiyuki 'Father of Gundam' Tomino."  Tomino did *not* co-write 0083,
  and he is not listed anywhere in the credits except under 'Original
  Concept.'  Tomino stated in Anime Expo '92 that he isn't involved in
  any way or form with 0083.
 
  The Hot Flashes blurb on Talking Head mentions Mikimoto and Shoji
  Kawamori, but forgets to mention director Oshii Mamoru.
 
* Mikimoto Mania by James Matsuzaki
 
  In the list of Mikimoto's past projects, Megazone 23 is included
  without any qualifications.  Eve was, of course, his only design; the
  others were done by Toshihiro Hirano and some other dude.  For his
  non-animation work, the article forgets to mention his work on Dragon
  magazine plus his cover/interior art for ALL Gundam novels except
  0083, which are some of his most visible works.
 
* Best of the East
  Giant Robo, "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
  Review by Yoshitaka Ishigami
 
  Ishigami, for some reason, mispells the names of the characters.
  Ginrin -> Ginrei, Tetsugyu -> Tetsugu, Taisou -> Taiso.  He also gives
  director Imagawa's source for the Tetsugyu and Taisou characters as
  "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."  This should be "Bandit Kings of
  China."
 
  Ushio and Tora
  Review by Matt Thorn
 
  Thorn explains the premise this way: Ushio breaks a seal on a dungeon,
  from which escapes "supernatural vapors" which take on "an unpleasant
  life of their own."  With the monster Tora and with his mystic spear,
  he sets out to destroy these vapor-spirits.  There are *no* vapors,
  just a mystical and powerful aura around Tora. This aura attracts
  other demons and they are the ones which Ushio and Tora go up against.
 
     It's a bit disappointing to see so many errors and omissions from
Animerica.  I hope this is just a problem with the maiden issue, and
that future issues will be better and more accurate.  Also, 44 out of
the total 64 pages (69%) were dedicated to manga.  I can see that
they're trying to get into the market for translated manga, but that
severely cuts down on the number of pages dedicated to new information
and in-depth articles, which IMHO should be the priority of an anime
magazine.
 
conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (E. Kontei) writes:
 
> I have to disagree with Gaver-sensei on this one.  From the one issue
> I've seen (#2), AnimeUK strikes me as a very slick-looking magazine
> with terrible articles.  The artwork is beautiful, yes, but EVERY
> article I read had errors in it.  I can understand one or two
> articles, but this was EVERY single article except the recipe at the
> end.  :-)
 
I've seen issue #2 and didn't think it was that hot.  I saw #4 at a
store, but I had second thoughts about buying it.  The cover was
well-colored, but I didn't get a chance to read it in detail.  The
label-things inside had decent artwork, but still arguably below that of
fan art which one can find in FanRoad, Animage, etc.  What caught my
eye, though, was an article on "The Sensualist," which was based on
(inspired?) by Ihara Saikaku's works.  Having just read some of
Saikaku's "floating world" fiction, I was interested to read about an
adaptation of his work.
-- 
Noel Gamboa (egamboa@ucsd.edu)
Asuma, after seeing a picture of Bado as a kid:
  "Hmm, what was that kid's name?  It was a simple name... 
   Was it Dom?  Was it Zaku? ..."  (from Yuuki Masami's Patlabor)
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