Mark Crispin wrote:Date: Sat, 11 Apr 87 23:24:28 PDT
From: Mark Crispin <MRC@PANDA>
Subject: a new mailing list
To: Urusei-Yatsura@PANDA
Postal-Address: 1802 Hackett Ave.; Mountain View, CA 94043-4431
Phone: +1 (415) 968-1052
Message-ID: <12293837157.8.MRC@PANDA>
I've set up a new mailing list, for us Lum-chan fans: URUSEI-YATSURA%
PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU
If you got this message, you are on the list. URUSEI-YATSURA-REQUEST also exists.
The reason for the %PANDA is that the mailing list is located on PANDA, a DEC-2020 in my house running TOPS-20.PANDA transfers mail with SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU, a DEC-2065, via a TTY mail protocol much like UUCP under Unix. Do not confuse PANDA with PANDA.Stanford.EDU, which is a MicroVAX at Stanford running Unix and is used as a workstation by the V group. As a service to me, PANDA.Stanford.EDU knows about the mail address "mrc" and knows to forward it to "mrc on the other PANDA", but this is by no means generalized. PANDA.Stanford.EDU would probably be quite surprised to see URUSEI-YATSURA mail!
Since there's only three of us so far (Eric Bowles, David Jo, and myself), I thought I'd respond to your messages to me together...
Are either of you guys nihonjin? I mean, you say you're from Japan, but, your names aren't very Japanese! Or did you just adopt American names to use while you are here? For business purposes, I use the katakana of my name (MA-KU.KURISUPIN) but I've "adopted" a native Japanese name, Kurisu Masahisa, using the kanjis KURI (chestnut), SU (nest), MA (truth), KU (eternity) for my jitsu-in.
Besides being nuts about Urusei Yatsura and having a DEC 20 in my house, I'm a 30 year old staff member at Stanford University's Department of Medicine, working as a system programmer on Lisp workstations and occasionally in my old DEC 20 haunts. Last October, I decided that after 9 years of working at Stanford I should put my staff auditing privileges to good use and so I started taking first-year Japanese. It's a difficult class, and since I don't have time to study as much
as I should I will probably take it over again next year. It's nice to have the luxury of being able to do that.
The best way to keep track of Urusei Yatsura is to join KAC. If you don't have their address from an earlier message, it is (in romaji style):
Kitty Animation Circle
1-8-5 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 151 JAPAN
(I always have my wordprocessor output the address in kanji). It costs 500 yen to join (you get a Lum-chan/Kyoko-chan T-shirt and a membership card) plus 2000 yen for a 6-month membership (subscription to "Movement!" magazine plus merchandise offers) plus 1300 yen for foreign members. If you join be sure to mention me. KAC told my friend Nojima-san that a guy in Taiwan and I are presently their only foreign members.
It was in the April issue of Movement! that the news about the delay in the new movie was announced, so this is recent news. I can't read Movement! without help from nihonjin (I can read hiragana, but I only know about 10 kanji as yet), but here's what I got from my friends who scanned the article: The original fifth movie was going to be called ""Urusei Yatsura 5" and the script was approved by Takahashi Rumiko last November. It appears that it was after that that Takahashi-sensei decided to terminate Urusei Yatsura and Mezon Ikkoku.
So, it was decided that the new movie should be the last one, based on the last comic series. The new working title is "Urusei Yatsura Final Story: Boy Meets Girl". If you don't know what the story of "Boy Meets Girl" is, I can tell you if you ask, otherwise I won't spoil it.
I have all the comic books except for #34 (the final one); my friend Nojima-san has mailed me a couple of copies of #34 but they haven't arrived yet. I do have the last four episodes of "Boy Meets Girl", from "Shonen Sunday Jump" (that's how I know how it ends). I have all the movie comics, but only two of the TV comics. I have the following video programs: ""Urusei Yatsura 1: Only You" (LD), "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer" (LD), "Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love" (LD), "Urusei Yatsura 4: Lum The Forever" (LD), "Making of Urusei Yatsura 4" (LD), "TV Tunes" (LD), "Love Me More" (LD), TV series selected by Takahashi-sensei volumes 1-3 (LD), "Ryoko's Tea Ceremony" (LD), "Chance On Love" (VHS), "Symphony Urusei Yatsura" (VHS), and "I'm the Shuu-chan" (Beta). This is pretty much everything that has been issued modulo some volumes of the TV series that are only available on videotape. I was going to buy those, but punted when I decided instead to order the complete TV series on laser disc (50 in all, for 330,000 yen). I made my final payment for the LD 50 in March; I understand there's quite a waiting list...
My Japanese animation ("Japanimation") collection also includes laser discs of "Nausicaa", "Laputa", two Lupin III stories (including "Cagliostro Castle), two Dirty Pair stories (including "Affair of Nolandia"); I've also seen "Crusher Joe" and "Vampire Hunter D". I don't really go for the heavy metal stuff, as you can tell; but what do you expect from someone who was a "Lord of the Rings" fan back during its heyday in the 60's?
What movie is your favorite? I liked "Remember My Love" just because it is so much fun (and it is easy to show to Americans who don't know any Japanese). I have a fondness for "Lum The Forever" since it was the first Urusei Yatsura story I saw; it and "Cagliostro Castle" are what got me interested in Japanimation. However, my understanding is that most nihonjin prefer "Beautiful Dreamer".
Of the TV shows I've seen, I like the first one and "Lum's Lecture for Boys" the best...
-- Mark --