Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

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!
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Fireminer
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Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by Fireminer »

Can anyone here recall which Japanese authors visited America during the period between 1970 to 2000? I remember listening to some podcasts and learnt that Manabe Jouji, Gosho Aoyama and Masumune Shirow visited some conventions, while Kenichi Sonoda actually lived in America for a while.
davemerrill
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by davemerrill »

Osamu Tezuka's biographical manga states at one point that post WWII, there were restrictions on Japanese citizens traveling abroad. I've done a little looking into this and haven't been able to find much in the way of documentation, but I'm still looking.

When Tezuka visited America in the 1960s to finalize the Astro Boy television deal with NBC, that was considered a big deal. Shueisha sent Shotaro Ishinomori around the world in 1961 - he visited the Seattle Worldcon at this time - and that also took some extra visa accomodation, apparently. But by 1970 at least these restrictions had been lifted.

You can check the guest list of anime conventions to see what anime and manga creators were guests at America's anime cons - animecons.com has a fairly comprehensive list. Prior to that, I know Tezuka, Go Nagai, Monkey Punch, and Yumiko Igarashi were guests at the 1980 San Diego Comic Con. Rumiko Takahashi was a guest at SDCC in 1994.
Fireminer
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by Fireminer »

davemerrill wrote: Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:37 am Osamu Tezuka's biographical manga states at one point that post WWII, there were restrictions on Japanese citizens traveling abroad. I've done a little looking into this and haven't been able to find much in the way of documentation, but I'm still looking.

When Tezuka visited America in the 1960s to finalize the Astro Boy television deal with NBC, that was considered a big deal. Shueisha sent Shotaro Ishinomori around the world in 1961 - he visited the Seattle Worldcon at this time - and that also took some extra visa accomodation, apparently. But by 1970 at least these restrictions had been lifted.

You can check the guest list of anime conventions to see what anime and manga creators were guests at America's anime cons - animecons.com has a fairly comprehensive list. Prior to that, I know Tezuka, Go Nagai, Monkey Punch, and Yumiko Igarashi were guests at the 1980 San Diego Comic Con. Rumiko Takahashi was a guest at SDCC in 1994.
Thanks for the suggestion? I just discovered from AnimeCons that Tomino was at Anime Expo 1992.

Also, I have seen here and there pictures of convention attendees back in the 1980s and 1990s, but is there any gallery that collected these pictures?
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DKop
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by DKop »

The only young(er) image of a Tomino that I found online was him in a Micky Mouse hat and smiling, two things I never thought I would ever see on his face :lol: . I'm assuming that might be from Anime Expo 92.
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by davemerrill »

that's right, Tomino was at the 1984 Worldcon in Los Angeles - Steve Harrison got some pix of him! https://letsanime.blogspot.com/2017/04/ ... ience.html
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by DKop »

So 1984, he had Xabungle which was a mech comedy show which seemed to be made when he was in a good mood, the last time he had one before Zeta Gundam. That in itself is a time capsule...
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Re: Japanese authors visiting America in the 1970s to 1990s

Post by _D_ »

Tezuka did tours several times in the 1980s. My bud in Minneapolis has a pic of himself and Tezuka and i got a couple of items autographed by him through my friend. Sadly, no one ever came up this far north that I was aware of, even just passing through...
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