pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
davemerrill
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by davemerrill »

here's a segment from the 1970s PBS children's show "Zoom" explaining how to send a SASE: https://youtu.be/A_Lpi7dV3Ag

(I never missed Zoom, it was great!)
Fireminer
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by Fireminer »

Say, Dave, I notice from one article on your blog that Yamato was called Space Cruiser Yamato on a magazine. Was this a one-off thing, or there were many people calling it like that?

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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by SteveH »

Oh man.
...

History lesson. Space Cruiser Yamato used to be the official title in English. Nishizaki had that plastered EVERYWHERE back in the old days. It came into use, from what I can tell, in '78 with the release of the theatrical feature (which was a cutdown of the 26 episodes of the first TV series), it was the start of the desire for international attention.

I have never read any official explanation, a reason for 'Space Cruiser'. There is no ambiguity in 'Senkan', it's Battleship.

The common thinking goes like this: Nishizaki was concerned that 'Battleship' was too aggressive, too much 'war' and Yamato was about love. Some thought that given the time (1978, WWII was just 30-some years back, still in memory of many living people) Space Battleship' would just be...really bad.

Once again Nishizaki would have been ahead of the curve, anticipating the 'Japan Panic' in America during the '80s over the increasing global power of Japan, Inc.

Others thought it was just the usual poor transliteration. Some guy in the office who remembered more of his high school English than anyone else said Cruiser was good and it just stuck for decades.

A third, minority thought was that Nishizaki was in a way trying to paint Yamato like Star Trek. The Enterprise was classed as a Heavy Cruiser and that wasn't obviously aggressive like a Battleship.

Of course this doesn't even touch Yamato being promoted as 'Star Force' at MIP-TV and NATPE (and even Cannes?) circa 1978, which somehow in some mysterious way led to Star Blazers in 1979. But Dave has much more on that. :)
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by Fireminer »

SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:04 am Of course this doesn't even touch Yamato being promoted as 'Star Force' at MIP-TV and NATPE (and even Cannes?) circa 1978, which somehow in some mysterious way led to Star Blazers in 1979. But Dave has much more on that. :)
May I ask what is NATPE?
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by SteveH »

Fireminer wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:11 am
SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:04 am Of course this doesn't even touch Yamato being promoted as 'Star Force' at MIP-TV and NATPE (and even Cannes?) circa 1978, which somehow in some mysterious way led to Star Blazers in 1979. But Dave has much more on that. :)
May I ask what is NATPE?
Urrgg, it's been so long.. IIrc it's the National Association of Television Production and Exhibition, an annual conference where people who make or sell programs try to sell their product to TV stations, syndication or other outlets. It may well be disbanded in our modern age but my gut says it still takes place. The modern TV marketplace is vastly different from 1978-79.
Fireminer
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by Fireminer »

SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:41 am Urrgg, it's been so long.. IIrc it's the National Association of Television Production and Exhibition, an annual conference where people who make or sell programs try to sell their product to TV stations, syndication or other outlets. It may well be disbanded in our modern age but my gut says it still takes place. The modern TV marketplace is vastly different from 1978-79.
Trade shows like that still happen annually in Vietnam and France, I think.
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by davemerrill »

SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:04 am Oh man.
...

History lesson. Space Cruiser Yamato used to be the official title in English. Nishizaki had that plastered EVERYWHERE back in the old days. It came into use, from what I can tell, in '78 with the release of the theatrical feature (which was a cutdown of the 26 episodes of the first TV series), it was the start of the desire for international attention.

I have never read any official explanation, a reason for 'Space Cruiser'. There is no ambiguity in 'Senkan', it's Battleship.

The common thinking goes like this: Nishizaki was concerned that 'Battleship' was too aggressive, too much 'war' and Yamato was about love. Some thought that given the time (1978, WWII was just 30-some years back, still in memory of many living people) Space Battleship' would just be...really bad.

Once again Nishizaki would have been ahead of the curve, anticipating the 'Japan Panic' in America during the '80s over the increasing global power of Japan, Inc.

Others thought it was just the usual poor transliteration. Some guy in the office who remembered more of his high school English than anyone else said Cruiser was good and it just stuck for decades.

A third, minority thought was that Nishizaki was in a way trying to paint Yamato like Star Trek. The Enterprise was classed as a Heavy Cruiser and that wasn't obviously aggressive like a Battleship.

Of course this doesn't even touch Yamato being promoted as 'Star Force' at MIP-TV and NATPE (and even Cannes?) circa 1978, which somehow in some mysterious way led to Star Blazers in 1979. But Dave has much more on that. :)
I don't know any more than Tim does about the "Star Force" era of the show's promotion, to be honest.

I do like the way "Cruiser" looks in that mellow 1970s typeface. It fits the era in a way that "Battleship" doesn't. Using "Cruiser" was a good call on somebody's part, I believe.

arrivederci_yaamto.jpg
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by SteveH »

Fireminer wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 6:39 pm
SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:41 am Urrgg, it's been so long.. IIrc it's the National Association of Television Production and Exhibition, an annual conference where people who make or sell programs try to sell their product to TV stations, syndication or other outlets. It may well be disbanded in our modern age but my gut says it still takes place. The modern TV marketplace is vastly different from 1978-79.
Trade shows like that still happen annually in Vietnam and France, I think.
Yes. MIP-TV com is in Cannes.
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by SteveH »

Dave, didn't you dig out some Star Force stuff out of Variety? I thought you did a Let's Anime on that.

I may well be insane and thinking something else. :)
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Re: pages from C/FO Magazine V2 #3

Post by Drew_Sutton »

SteveH wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:04 am Oh man.
...

History lesson. Space Cruiser Yamato used to be the official title in English. Nishizaki had that plastered EVERYWHERE back in the old days. It came into use, from what I can tell, in '78 with the release of the theatrical feature (which was a cutdown of the 26 episodes of the first TV series), it was the start of the desire for international attention.

I have never read any official explanation, a reason for 'Space Cruiser'. There is no ambiguity in 'Senkan', it's Battleship.

The common thinking goes like this: Nishizaki was concerned that 'Battleship' was too aggressive, too much 'war' and Yamato was about love. Some thought that given the time (1978, WWII was just 30-some years back, still in memory of many living people) Space Battleship' would just be...really bad.

Once again Nishizaki would have been ahead of the curve, anticipating the 'Japan Panic' in America during the '80s over the increasing global power of Japan, Inc.

Others thought it was just the usual poor transliteration. Some guy in the office who remembered more of his high school English than anyone else said Cruiser was good and it just stuck for decades.

A third, minority thought was that Nishizaki was in a way trying to paint Yamato like Star Trek. The Enterprise was classed as a Heavy Cruiser and that wasn't obviously aggressive like a Battleship.

Of course this doesn't even touch Yamato being promoted as 'Star Force' at MIP-TV and NATPE (and even Cannes?) circa 1978, which somehow in some mysterious way led to Star Blazers in 1979. But Dave has much more on that. :)
I wish I could remember where I'd heard it but a fourth reason I've heard for Space Cruiser Yamato was that Nishizaki's boat was a cruiser-type (not as in the military class but some civilian class; I don't know, I don't know boats) and in conjunction with wanting something softer sounding than "battleship", it was decided to call it "space cruiser".

I don't know the veracity of that. It's probably actually more rumor and innuendo than anything resembling the truth. But it is a fun to think about the vanity of it all.
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