From: nasato@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu (Neil Asato)
Subject: Re: Quick news + questions
Organization: University of Engineering, College of Engineering
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 23:30:14 GMT

In article <axolotl.721561716@syzygy> axolotl@socs.uts.edu.au writes:
>
[Ranma note deleted]
>
>  Anyone know what the You and Me CD is like?  How about the Ushio to Tora
>CDs?  (BTW, to Neil Asato, PLEASE keep posting newsbits from Business Jump
>-- our store doesn't carry it any more).

     WHAT?! They animated the manga(You and Me)?! This is something 
that I would like to get.
     Well, I normally do not follow much else in that magazine,
I will try to follow the other manga (Natsuki Crisis, The Hard,and
maybe others) if no else is willing to volunteer. If anyone
wants to, feel free to go right ahead. 

>
[Young Magazine note deleted]
>
>  kunedog was discussing the various audiences of shounen manga mags...
>  s. Jump -> everyone
>  s. Sunday -> inner-city
>  s. Champion -> macho/manly
>  s. Magazine -> sport
>  s. Captain -> otakus
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
     Uh-oh. I have been thinking of picking up this one since I
saw that Hiroshi Aro was doing a new series called Hunter Cats
in it. The cover has 3 women on it, one who seems to be a fighter,
another seems to have a royal bearing, and another seems to be an
teen-aged girl. I will go pick it up over the week-end and check
it out.

>
>  Are these fair descriptions?

     Beats me. Usually, I just do the same things with all comics:
keep extra cash handy; if I see a cover that catches my interest,
I buy it; usually, as long as the magazine has at least one interesting
story in it, I will keep buying the magazine. I have an aversion to 
having an order with the stores as there are several competing manga
shops in the area, so I can shop around for the cheapest one.
     For those on Oahu, Hawaii: the shops to take a look at for
manga are: Ryubun (they have the more non-standard magazines and manga),
Iwase Bookstore (the main manga shop on Oahu; and this is connected
with that bookstore chain in Japan; their video rental is not that
great; they have a discount card, which is must if you plan to buy
things here for a long time), BunBunDo Bookstore (the main competitor 
to Iwase, they deal in similar items; I usually buy Business Jump from
over here [I will probably regret saying this as everybody suddenly
buys up all the Business Jump from this store]; it has one of the
most complete television series for rent, and at reasonable prices),
and Holiday Mart in Honolulu (do not go to the one Pearl City, as that
one gave up on manga a long time ago; it has a very small collection,
but it usually has Manga Afternoon [I think, or is it "Manga Frontier"?
The only time I go there is when I rent videos from Japan Video nearby).
  For places to rent anime (aside from the ones mentioned above):
Japan Video (mainly television series compilations like fore City Hunter,
but they have the volumes 1 to 3 for Wandering Kid here [for some reason
they always seem to out...]; they also have one of the Sukuban Deka
movies), Shiki's (I am not sure of this spelling; it is located near
Puck's Alley; it was a long time since I have visited here; its main
business is as a Japanese restaurant; off to the side are some
cabinets of tapes; they had some OVA that I have never seen elsewhere,
maybe someday I will go rent here again), J-wave (this is one of the
newest anime shops to have opened, last year; its intended market
are bikers, car fanatics [they sell all sorts of trinkets for cars off
to the side] and otakus; they have a lot of live-action super hero stuff
including Kikaida; they have a semi-walled off section for those
who want to see things like Lemon Angel OVAs; they sell a special
discount cards, some of which cost a lot [I think around a 100 dollars]
which is for the hard-core otaku who is willing to rent every video 
tape in the store; they tend to get a lot of newer tapes too, though
they cost more to rent; they are the only place that I am aware of
that has all of the Megazone 23 tapes).
     Before I forget, Shiki's is the only place that has the translated
dub of the Megazone 23 part 2 (not to sure if they still do 
video rentals, though...)
     Another thing to keep in mind about video shops on Oahu,
is that they are aware of one another, so they rarely carry video
tapes that the other has. This can make it expensive to hold rental
cards in virtually every store on the island. Another thing that seems
to exist, is that these stores seems to be cursed with lousy
parking spaces. 

     On a slightly different topic: an OVA that I saw from BunBunDo
seems interesting. Its name is Michitekuru Toki no Mukou ni (roughly
translates as: Fulfillment Beyond). It is an "artistic" OVA about
reincarnation and destiny, with a background of an ancient religon 
(I think it is called animism). It is not something that can be analysed,
since it seems to be more for impressions than logic. Still, it
is not too bad to round off the evening after watching a lot of
superhero and humor videos.

     For those who want humor in a similar brand as Hiroshi Aro's
works, I suggest Momotaroh Densetsu and Shin Momotaroh Densetsu
(Peach Boy Legend and New Peach Boy Legend, respectively) at BunBunDo.
I am beginning to think that the scene with a lot of Aro's drawings
in the background for the new series was more than a coincidence.
While I could not find his pen-name there [nobody thought "Hiroshi
Aro" was his real name right?], its possible that he used his real
name there.  I have heard that there were some computer games for
this show, though I have not seen this myself (supposedly one is
a parody of traveling in Japan, and another is supposed to be some
kind of adventure game).

Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga