rec.arts.anime FAQ

[greg]

I took this from www.faqs.org. It's interesting to remember when people would actually debate whether it's "Buma" or "Boomer" and whether or not Nausicaa is wearing pants or not. Great times. This FAQ was compiled by the legendary Stev Pearl.

THE ANIME FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS LIST
=========================================
Edited by
Steve Pearl
September, 1998

This FAQ, as well as the other anime/manga newsgroup FAQs and info
articles written by Steve Pearl, are available from the Official
Anime/Manga FAQ page at
http://www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/FAQ.html
The FAQs on that page are always the most recent version (The monthly
posts are posted directly from that directory!)

This is a monthly list of questions that have been frequently asked in this
newsgroup. This article can be freely distributed for non-commercial
use, as long as all credits and notices remain intact. If this is used in any
publication, including APAs & CD-Rom Collections, a copy must be sent to:

Steve Pearl
PO Box 11044
New Brunswick, NJ 08906-1044

Please send all additions/corrections/comments to:

Steve Pearl
PO Box 11044
New Brunswick, NJ 08906-1044
Internet: steve@otaking.com

Changes to this posting since August:
- Updated Anime Cons section to include more resources

Updated, added or expanded:
Added:
Updated:
Revised:

Coming soon:
- Reorganization of FAQ based on topics

Information needed:

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed on this post do not necessarily represent
the opinions held either by the editor or any organization he's affiliated
with.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

o ANIME CONS
o ANIME IN-JOKES IN STAR TREK
o DAICON VIDEOS
o WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN A LARGE DROP OF WATER APPEARS ON ANIME CHARACTER'S
HEAD?
o WHY WAS "AH! MY GODDESS" CHANGED TO "OH! MY GODDESS"? IT WAS IN ENGLISH TO
BEGIN WITH!
o KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD: THE FIRST OVA AND EPISODE #46
o LASERDISC ANIME GAMES
o LUPIN, RUPAN, WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? WHY THE DIFFERENT NAMES FOR THE SAME
GUY?
o LEARNING JAPANESE
o MEGAZONE 23, ROBOTECH, AND EVERYTHING
o MIYAZAKI FILMS IN ENGLISH
o NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND vs. WARRIORS OF THE WIND
o RANMA 1/2 "WHAT-IF"s
o ROBOTECH VS. MACROSS
o MATTHEW SWEET'S "GIRLFRIEND" VIDEO AND SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA
o OTAKU? WHAT'S AN OTAKU?
o WHAT DOES "BUBBLEGUM CRISIS" REFER TO?
o WHAT DOES THE TERM "BOOMER/BUMA" FROM BUBBLEGUM CRISIS/CRASH! STAND FOR?
o HEY! I HEARD THAT SONODA KENICHI DIDN'T CREATE BUBBLEGUM CRISIS! IS THIS
TRUE?
o WHO OR WHAT IS BEAN BANDIT AND HOW CAN HE DO THE THINGS HE DOES?
o OCCASIONALLY, IN ANIME, SHORT, ROUND VERSIONS OF ANIME CHARACTERS APPEAR.
WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THE JAPANESE FOND OF USING THEM?
o IS THERE AN ROLE-PLAYING GAME SYSTEM FOR RECORD OF LODOSS WAR?
o WHY WON'T THERE BE ANYMORE RIDING BEAN OR BUBBLEGUM CRISIS OAVS?
o WILL THERE BE ANY SEQUELS TO THE "RIDING BEAN" OAV?
o WHAT ARE JAPANESE PHONE CARDS AND PHONE BOOKS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO
DO WITH ANIME/MANGA?
o TRANSLATED MANGA AVAILABLE IN THE USA
o WHY DO JAPANESE ANIME MAGAZINES COST SO MUCH IN THE U.S.?
o WHO OR WHAT IS THIS PUMA PERSON?
o WHAT DO ALL THESE ANIME ACRONYMS STAND FOR?
o PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT JAPANESE HONORIFICS AND TERMS OF ADDRESS
o WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND ROBOTECH AND IT'S COMPONENT SHOWS?
o HAS ANYONE SEEN THAT MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE GUNHED MOVIE?
o WHAT ARE JIS KANJI CODES AND HOW DO I USE THEM?
o WHAT IS THIS ANIME MUCK AND HOW DO I ACCESS IT?
o WHAT DOES AD POLICE REALLY STAND FOR?
o WHAT IS THIS SAILOR MOON THING, ANYHOW?
o IS THE CRITERION EDITION OF AKIRA SUBTITLED? HOW IS THE EXTRA FOOTAGE?
o WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT ROTTING KOR LASER DISKS
o HEY! MY BGC 1-3 LD FROM ANIMEIGO IS HISSING! WHAT'S THE DEAL?
o WHAT IS TURBO TITLER AND WHERE CAN I FIND IT?
o WHAT TV SYSTEM DOES HONG KONG USE?
o ARE MICHITAKA KIKUCHI & KIA ASAMIYA THE SAME PERSON?
o IS SYLIA FROM BGC A BOOMER?
o WHAT IS ANIMEIGO'S POLICY FOR RELEASING THEIR TITLES ON LASER DISC?
o WHAT IS JACOSUB AND HOW CAN I CONTACT THE AUTHOR?
o IS NAUSICAA WEARING PANTS?
o WHAT IS "H"?
o HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE CARL MACEK'S LAST NAME?
o WHAT'S THIS ABOUT QUANTUM LEAP AND AKIRA?
---

o ANIME CONS:

Once upon a time, we anime fans occupied tiny anime rooms at
comic & SF cons (when they let us). In the 80's, there were
several attempts at small anime related cons but the real action
didn't happen until the 90's when AnimeCon came along, with both
Japanese & American industry guests. Anime Expo followed the next
year, filling the void left by AnimeCon with Anime America making
its appearance the next year. After 5 years, Project Akon finally
got a Japanese guest. The next year was witness to the East Coast
Convention explosion as Otakon, Anime East, & Katsucon all
debuted in the space of one year. Now, there are a plethora of
Anime related conventions all over the country.

For advance notice of upcoming conventions, check out the
Convention Calendars published in each issue of Animerica,
Animeco or Protoculture Addicts magazines.

Or you can check out the online Con Calendars at:

www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/concalendar.html
or
www.animerica-mag.com/con_calendar/index.html

or check out the Internet Anime/Manga Convention Guide at
the FAQ page at www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/FAQ.html
(See the Resources section of the FAQ).

or check out the Anime Conventions Links page at
www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/links/LnkACons.html

or join the AnimeCons Mailing list at
www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/ML/animecons.html
(See the Resources section of the FAQ).

o ANIME IN-JOKES IN STAR TREK

Some of the people who work in the set design department of Paramount
Pictures are anime fans, and have been able to sneak anime references in
Paramount's various STAR TREK television series. According to set manager
Rick Sternbach, there is at least one reference per episode. Usually these
references are in computer displays or in the sets themselves. Examples
include:

- Japanese characters in the "ambo-jitsu" ring that Cmdr. Riker used
in "The Icarus Factor". All of them are written references to
URUSEI YATSURA.

- In the 2nd season episode "Peak Performance", a computer display with
two ships called Kei and Yuri, a reference to the protagonists of the
DIRTY PAIR OVA and TV series.

- A reference to the element "sonodaium", for Kenichi Sonoda (creator
of GALL FORCE, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, and RIDING BEAN).

Ironically enough, one of the most "obvious" anime in-jokes is not really
one. The sister ship to the Enterprise, the Yamato, has the same name as the
ship from SPACE CRUISER YAMATO (known in the US as STAR BLAZERS). However,
Mr. Sternbach has indicated that it is only a coincidence, as both spacegoing
vessels are named after the WWII Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the
largest seagoing vessels ever built. (In fact, the Yamato from the anime
series IS the WWII battleship, but that's another story).

To the best of our knowledge, no one has done a canonical list of all the
in-jokes discovered so far. [I have a partial list of stuff culled from
appendix G of the Star Trek Guide. See the Resources section of the FAQ
for information on how to get it.]


o DAICON VIDEOS

DAICON is a yearly SF convention held in Osaka, Japan. It is called DAI-CON
because the kanji for Osaka can be read as "dai". (A "daicon" is also the
name for a Humungous white radish, but that's another story.)

"DAICON III" and "DAICON IV" were two animated shorts shown at the opening
ceremonies of the 15th (1981) and 17th (1983) DAICONs. They feature the
convention mascot (the Daicon Bunny, strongest Playboy Bunny in the universe)
encountering everybody from the Space Cruiser Yamato to Ming the Merciless.

As an interesting note, the people who made DAICON IV later went on to create
the GAINAX (WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, NADIA OF THE MYSTERIOUS SEAS) animation
studio.

o WHAT WAS THE FIRST OAV?

Contrary to popular beliefs, the first OAV was not Megazone 23 but rather
*Moon Station Dallos* It came out a year before MZ23.(1984, where MZ23 was
released in '85) - From a post by Gordon Waters

o WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN A LARGE DROP OF WATER APPEARS ON ANIME CHARACTER'S
HEAD?

That is a big drop of sweat, showing that the person is embarassed or is
worried about something


o WHY WAS "AH! MY GODDESS" CHANGED TO "OH! MY GODDESS"? IT WAS IN ENGLISH TO
BEGIN WITH!

When the Englis licensors (Studio Proteus & AnimEigo) asked Fujishima what
they should call the American release, and he said he didn't care, as long as
they felt the title they chose sounded best in English. Therefore, they
chose "OH MY GODDESS!", based upon their own opinions. Fujishima never
expressed a preference for "OH" and he later told Hitoshi Doi that they
should have left it alone. - From a post by Ryan Mathews

o KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD: THE FIRST OVA AND EPISODE #46

The first animated KOR ever made was an OVA based on a story from volume 5
of the manga with a beach resort being used instead of a skiing resort.
For the KOR TV series that followed, the animation company and character
designer were retained, but the voice actors were changed.

In episode #46 of the TV series ("Okinawa Vacation"), the same story
was used as for the first OVA, but the setting was changed back to a
skiing resort.

Most people consider KOR OVA #1 to be "White Lovers".

o LASERDISC ANIME GAMES

Some of the laserdisc videogames that came out in the early 80's used footage
from anime films. Note that while the game discs themselves are not
commercially available, the movies on which they are based on are available
(with the exception of COBRA COMMAND, of course).

1) The laserdisc videogame CLIFF HANGER by Stern uses footage from two anime
movies starring Lupin III, a charming thief created by manga artist Monkey
Punch. The movies used were:

- Lupin III: Lupin vs the Clones (a.k.a. Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo)
- The Paris car/helicopter chase scene and the hanging scene were
taken from this film.

- Lupin III: Cagliostro's Castle
- All the other footage for the game was taken from this film.
Note: this film is currently being distributed in the US by
Streamline Pictures.

2) The videogame BEGA'S BATTLE by Data East used footage from Katsuhiro
Otomo's GENMA TAISEN (a.k.a. HARMAGGEDON).

3) The videogame COBRA COMMAND by Data East uses anime footage created
(by Toei) specifically for the game.

4) The videogame GALAXY 999 used footage from Leiji Matsumoto's GALAXY
EXPRESS 999.


o LUPIN, RUPAN, WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? WHY THE DIFFERENT NAMES FOR THE SAME
GUY?

The reason for the difference in names is a matter of international
copyright. Lupin III is based on a series of French novels about a gentleman
thief known as Lupin. Monkey Punch's anime charecter is purported to be the
grandson of the first Lupin. Now here's where the fun part comes in... It's
been about 50 years since the death of the author, which makes the Lupin
copyright public domain, internationally. AnimEigo is trying to avoid any
copyright problems by calling it Rupan. Streamline, on the other hand, after
refering to him as The Wolf to avoid similar problems has reverted to the
Lupin name now that they can. You may notice that the Japanese
pronounciation of the word is "Rupan."

o LEARNING JAPANESE

As is to be expected, all anime is in Japanese. Synopses, scripts, subtitles
and dubbing all help to understand what's going on, but they can only cover a
fraction of all the anime being released at a certain time. A common
question in rec.arts.anime and sci.lang.japan is "What books would you folks
recommend for someone who wants to learn colloquial Japanese?"

The following books have been recommended by persons in this newsgroup as
good sources for learning Japanese. Of course, they can't replace a live
teacher in a Japanese course at your local university, or practicing with a
Japanese-speaking friend (a GOOD friend, in case you unwittingly commit a
faux-pas .

Basic Japanese textbooks:

BASIC STRUCTURES IN JAPANESE
by Aoki, Hirose, Keller, Sakuma
Taishukan Publishing Company
A beginner's Japanese textbook.

JAPANESE: THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE
by Eleanor Jordan
The standard text for college level Japanese.
Yale university Press, 1988.
ISBN 0-300-04188-8

ESSENTIAL JAPANESE
by Samuel. E. Martin.

JAPANESE FOR BUSY PEOPLE (volumes I and II)
by Association for Japanese-Language Teaching (AJALT)
Kodansha International Publishers (Tokyo and NY)
Another beginner's Japanese textbook. Recommended.

Books on colloquial Japanese:

JAPANESE IN ACTION
by Jack Seward

MAKING OUT IN JAPANESE
by Todd & Erika Geers
Yenbooks (Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company)
A book on colloquial Japanese.

MORE MAKING OUT IN JAPANESE
The sequel to "Making Out in Japanese"

MANGAJIN
MANGAJIN
PO Box 7119
Marietta GA 30065
This is a magazine with detailed panel-by-panel manga translations,
along with articles on the Japanese culture. Regular features
include: "Galaxy Express 999", "What's Michael", "Tanaka-kun", etc.
Great for learning colloquial Japanese.

Books on Japanese Grammar:

AN INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE GRAMMAR AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
by Senko K. Maynard
The Japan Times
A book on Japanese Grammar

Reference works:

KENKYUSHA'S JAPANESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY

NELSON'S CHINESE CHARACTER DICTIONARY

Other suggestions:

Get a feel of basic Japanese before figuring out the slangs and
contractions.

Keep in mind that even the simplest Manga assume about 7 years of
constant Japanese usage.

Get Japanese copies of children's classics such as Winne-the-Pooh,
A Christmas Carol, etc., which are aimed for elementary/grammar
school children. Read them and compare with the original English.

Jordan's book has plain style Japanese starting with chapter 9.

Most minor Japanese sentences are in the so-called "direct" style.

Live in Japan for a while. [A bit drastic, isn't it? -- Editor]

Read manga and watch T.V., preferably watch some show with subtitles.

LOTS OF PATIENCE!! Learning a new language is never easy.



o MEGAZONE 23, ROBOTECH, AND EVERYTHING

MEGAZONE 23 (MEGAZONE TWO THREE) is a SF film about the Tokyo Megazone,
a space-faring reproduction of modern Tokyo. Its inhabitants are kept
unaware of the fact that this is not the real Tokyo by various means.
There have been three MEGAZONE 23 films.

Carl Macek (the producer of ROBOTECH) wanted to use the footage from the
first MEGAZONE film for a ROBOTECH movie. The film was dubbed in late
1985, Intersound finished the production while Carl Macek was in Japan
working on ROBOTECH: THE SENTINELS [a sequel to ROBOTECH which never got
off the ground]. The deal was with Cannon films and when they showed it
to them, they couldn't "understand" it. Since they wanted a ROBOTECH
movie, they wanted "more guns, more shooting, more robots" and basically
gave them two days to make a new movie. So Carl put in the SOUTHERN CROSS
[a.k.a. "ROBOTECH MASTERS"] stuff in, even though he said "it's going to
look terrible, Megazone is in 35mm , SC is in 16mm it's going to look
terrible when it's blown up." Nevertheless he put it together and showed
it to them and the execs said quote[in thick russian type accent as Carl
was retelling] "Now dees is Cannon Film." PLUS, Carl had Tatsunoko
animate a NEW ending (I guess we Americans can't handle anything but a
happy ending). It was about ten minutes worth.

And thus a test showing of ROBOTECH: THE MOVIE came out in a couple of
Texas theaters back in the Xmas season, 1985, or maybe early 86, I
can't quite remember. The audience reaction was so negative the film
never got wide distribution.

Now, MEGAZONE 23 PART II came around 2 years later. Harmony Gold was hired
again to dub it for the Japanese market, for educational purposes (sorta
like the Macross movie dub, except at least Intersound's actors had some
semblence of talent.) I believe this was probably the last thing Macek
did with HG though he might have been gone by then. Anyway, on the LD of
the English MZ 23 II, at the beginning of the disc, they included a
"Present For You", which basically was the new ending they did for use
in Robotech the Movie without the voice track. The art styles between
the new "ending" and MZ 23 II are radically different.

-- Written by
Ryan Gavigan

Streamline Pictures has the rights to the entire Megazone 23 series and will
be dubbing and releasing them.


o MIYAZAKI FILMS IN ENGLISH

Most of Miyazaki's films have been aquired by Walt Disney for
dubbing and release in the States.

First up is Kiki's Delivery Service, which will be released in September on VHS and LD.
The release schedule for the other films is not yet known.

Princess Mononoke will be released theatrically next summer by
the Mirimax division of Walt Disney Pictures with a screenplay by
Neil Gaiman.

Previously released in English and now unavailable was TONARI NO
TOTORO (It was _dubbed_ into English (by Streamline Pictures),
and later released theatrically by Troma Films. The Home Video
release was on Fox Video.) and Nausicaa (see next entry for details)

Also dubbed in English and available as a part of the Ghibli Ga
Ippai LD box set are: Kiki's, Totoro, Porco Rosso, and Laputa.
.
No other Miyazaki films were dubbed into English.

o NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND vs. WARRIORS OF THE WIND

In 1984, Hayao Miyazaki directed NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, a SF
film based on the manga by the same name (distributed in the US by Viz
Comics). This movie has been very popular in Japan and with r.a.a. readers.
In 1988 New World Films released an English-dubbed version of the film, and
changed the name to WARRIORS OF THE WIND. To make WoW a more action-oriented
and marketable film, about 20 minutes of footage were cut from the original
version, and major changes were made in the dialogue. The drastic
difference in quality between the two films is used by anime fans as an
example of the typical kind of gross editing done to anime features
translated to English. Note that this is not a practice incurred upon
by the companies mentioned under SUBTITLED and TRANSLATED anime in the
Anime Resources List (with the exception of FHE).


o RANMA 1/2 "WHAT-IF"s

RANMA 1/2 is a TV comedy about Saotome Ranma, a teenager afflicted by a
weird curse from a Chinese training ground called Jusenkyou (the land of
cursed springs). There are more than 1000 pools there, each with its own
curse. Ranma fell in Nyanniichuan (the Girl-Drowning Spring), where a girl
drowned 1500 years ago. Because of the spring's curse, when Ranma is
doused with cold water, he turns into a girl. Hot water changes her back
nto a him.

Several FAQs have come across, mostly idle "what-if" speculations. Here are
some of the most common:

Q: What if Ranma fell into another pool? Would both curses be activated
at the same time?
A: No. Only one curse can be active at a time. BTW, a character was
introduced who, when splashed, transformed into a combination of
various animals, because he fell into a cursed pool where various animals
drowned together.

Q: Can Ranma's curse be cured?
A: Yes. In one episode, Ranma obtained a mix that turned ordinary water into
"man-drown-spring" water. The water effectively cancelled the original
curse, so Ranma didn't change when wet (unfortunately, the mix was
a cheap imitation that only worked once). It is assumed that if Ranma
were able to get to Jusenkyo, and find the real "man-drown-spring",
he could remove his curse.

Q: What would happen if Ranma-chan (the female Ranma, in Japanese) got
pregnant? Would she lose her baby if she changed back to Ranma-kun
(the male Ranma)?
A: No idea. At any rate, it's very unlikely that such a thing will happen,
for a number of reasons, some of which are:
- Mentally, Ranma is still a man, whatever his physical form may be.
- Rumiko Takahashi, the author of RANMA 1/2, doesn't write that kind
of story.

-- With a lot of help from
Theresa Martin and Ken Arromdee


o ROBOTECH VS. MACROSS

SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS was made a little before 1982 and was
released in 1982 as a TV series in Japan. The overall popularity that
MACROSS received from the Japanese audience was so astounding that the
creators of the series decided to make a movie rather than another series.
In 1984, MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE opened in theaters all across Japan.
It has the the same basic plot as the series, but with more visual pizzazz.

ROBOTECH is composed of three different series which have absolutely no
connections to each other. Carl Macek bought the rights to these three series
and with his team of helpers, got these three series to be combined into one
story which was called ROBOTECH. The first is MACROSS as all you guys should
know by now. Carl Macek massively edited the series to fit his need but still
kept to the main story line that the Japanese creators made. The other two
series that was part of ROBOTECH was great if their true stories were told
rather than being part of the Macross saga which everyone who talks about
this seems to like.
-- From a posting by
Kong Chung-Lin Chang

[Editor's note: The other two series used for Robotech were SUPER
DIMENSIONAL CAVALRY SOUTHERN CROSS (a.k.a. THE ROBOTECH MASTERS) and GENESIS
CLIMBER MOSPEADA (a.k.a. ROBOTECH: THE NEW GENERATION). But Kong is right
when he writes that Macross is the one most people associate with Robotech.]



o MATTHEW SWEET'S "GIRLFRIEND" VIDEO AND SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA

The video "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet uses anime footage from the
movie SPACE ADVENTURER COBRA, based on the comic of the same name by
Buichi Terasawa. VIZ comics published 10 (11?) issues of the COBRA
comic in English. Neither the movie (nor the COBRA TV series) are
available in English. Although the pilot episode of Cobra was
dubbed in English. Some lucky people have a copy. (I am not one, so
please don't ask!)


o OTAKU? WHAT'S AN OTAKU?

OTAKU
(1) Original meaning: Your house (company, organiztion, etc), used as
a polite form of the second person => you

(2) Meaning in early-late 1980's: An extreme fan of anime/manga/sf who
lacks communications with other people and usually untidy => nerd,
fanboy [Otakus used "otaku" for "you" instead of more common "anata"
"anta" and that' what gave them the title of Otaku-Zoku (otaku-race)]

(3) Current Usage: Anyone obssesed or overly interested with any subject
<ex.> Car otaku, Gun Otaku, etc... => mania, freak

(2) has VERY negative meaning and (3) still carries negative meaning, unless
used between otakus, of course. So use "otaku" to only other anime fans.

On the net, Otaku is usually refered to a big fan of anime and/or
manga. For example, I'm an Otaku.

--From a posting by Tonghyun "Vajra" Kim

One other suggestion: Don't call _anyone_ else an otaku unless you know how
they feel about the term. Not all anime fans like being called an otaku.
I'm one of those who doesn't care to have the word applied to me, though I
have no problems with other fans calling themselves otaku.
-- Christina Callahan

O WHAT DOES "BUBBLEGUM CRISIS" REFER TO?

Conventional fan definition:
It describes the state of technology in MegaTokyo (and the world)...
Like a very big bubblegum bubble, surface tension in the city
has been rising and rising, and it is about to reach a point where
nothing will stop a collapse or blow-up... (ie. Boomers going rampant,
etc.) Thus, it's a Bubblegum Crisis... Simple, isn't it?
--From a posting by Michael Studte

A Bubblegum Crisis is what happens when you blow a huge
bubblegum bubble and it pops and gets all over your face and hair and
won't easily get cleaned up. In other words, a wierd and yucky
problem that just won't go away.
Source : Toshimichi Suzuki, creator of Bubblegum Crisis.
--From a posting by Robert Woodhead



o WHAT DOES THE TERM "BOOMER/BUMA" FROM BUBBLEGUM CRISIS/CRASH! STAND FOR?
This is a question that has plagued anime fandom for some
time. Some people have speculated that it could be a phonetic
reading of an acronym (Much the way Mospeada actually stands for
Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation)
like Boomer = B_io- or BUMA =Big
M_echanical Ugly
R_eplicant Metal
Android

But as always, Robert Woodhead has the definitive answer:
"It does not stand for anything. The creators liked the feel of the
English word (ie: one who makes a lot of noise, a lot of fuss) and
one thing lead to another..."


o HEY! I HEARD THAT SONODA KENICHI DIDN'T CREATE BUBBLEGUM CRISIS! IS THIS
TRUE?

Sonoda Kenichi did not create Bubblegum Crisis. He worked on character and
mechanical designs for the first four episodes, and assisted on production
designs on the last episode. The reason he is credited with character
designs on episodes 5-8 is that character designs he did for episodes 1-4
were reused. Gooda Hiroaki and Urushibara Satoshi designed all the new
characters in episodes 5-8. Sonoda is also credited with the character
designs in Bubblegum Crash for the same reason, i.e., old character designs
of his were recycled. Also, Sonoda was second choice for this job; he was
tapped only after Artmic's first choice, Amano Yoshitaka (known for his
character designs on such features as Gatchaman, Mospeada, Vampire Hunter D
and Tenshi no Tamago), turned it down because he didn't want to do mechanical
designs. The series was created by Suzuki Toshimichi, founder and president
of Artmic, and author of the screenplays for episodes 5-7.

Addendum: Sonoda started out working on Moonlight Rambler, but quit partway
through, for reasons not entirely clear. Gooda Hiroaki took over at that
point; Largo is his original design, for example. Sonoda also did the cover
art for the videocassette and LD editions of all eight episodes of Crisis,
all the Crisis CDs, and both Hurricane Live videos, which may explain his
involvement in the character design process of later episodes.

As for Vision, he did all the cover art for Double Vision (see above). Also,
Urushibara intended the Vision design to be based on an older version of
Irene, so Sonoda's work was at least tangentially involved here too.

-Michael House (AnimEigo)

o WHO OR WHAT IS BEAN BANDIT AND HOW CAN HE DO THE THINGS HE DOES?

The character Bean Bandit in the OAV "Riding Bean" seems almost
superhuman. He seems to withstand bullets, car impacts, etc. How can
he do this?

1) Bean is supposed to be a mix of all the best races of the world.
So he's supposed to be genetically perfect perhaps...or superior.

2) He wears a Titanium mesh jacket lined with Kevlar. 10-20 times
stronger than Kevlar alone. Thus the bullets could not hurt him.
You'll note he was holding up the collar flap against his cheek to
protect his head. His gloves and headband are made of the same
material.

3) As one poster said Bean is Sonoda's equivalent of every Tough Guy(tm)
that Hollywood has ever created. Everyone from Sam Spade to the
Eastwood's Mysterious Stranger (High Plains Drifter, et al) to John
McClane of Die Hard. They perform deeds beyond the abilities of
normal men. Bean is a modern-day pulp hero, sort of a Doc Savage for
the 1990s. He's not superhuman, he's not a Buma and he's not normal.
He's a Tough Guy (tm)!

4) The one TRUE source, Kenichi Sonoda, was asked "WHAT _IS_ BEAN?" and he
answered: "Bean's one well built brother."

o OCCASIONALLY, IN ANIME, SHORT, ROUND VERSIONS OF ANIME CHARACTERS APPEAR.
WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THE JAPANESE FOND OF USING THEM?

That practice is known as "Super-Deforming" characters. It's a way
of making even the most horrible monster into something small and
cute. As far as I know, the first occurrance of this was in
SD-Gundam. Nowadays, Super-Deformed characters are appearing
*everywhere*. Here are a couple I can come up with, just off the top
of my head. It seems to be appealing for some strange reason :

- Ranma 1/2 Nettouhen
The 'eyecatch' sequences
- Video Girl Ai
The postscript segments
- Dirty Pair
The closing credits of the 10 episode OAV series
- Superdimensional Fortress Macross
The opening credits (when the series was rerun recently)
- Gunbuster
The science lessons
- Gall Force
10 Little Gall Force
- Patlabor on Television
The first 'eyecatch' sequences
- SD Gundam
OF COURSE!!

- From a post by Alan Takahashi

o IS THERE AN ROLE-PLAYING GAME SYSTEM FOR RECORD OF LODOSS WAR?


The original RoLW was a pseudo D&D campaign, based on a much
simplified verison of its rules. As its publicity grew, the gaming
group, Group SNE, began to explain some of the rules at the back of
their novels and RPG replays. The first attempt at publishing a
complete system was the printing of the RoLW Companion in October
1989. The success it enjoyed prompted the release of volume two,
which came out in June 1991, soon after the series has been animated.
These books may be available at Kinokuniya or other major Japanese
bookstores.
-From a post by Chadwick Sheeta "the Elf"

o WHY WON'T THERE BE ANYMORE RIDING BEAN OR BUBBLEGUM CRISIS OAVS?

There are currently legal problems due to the recent breakup of
Youmex and Artmic because they both own the rights to Riding Bean and
BGCrisis jointly. And there's (currently) no way to resolve their
dispute and/or the rights so there won't be any more. However, Bean
has been making guest appearances in Sonoda's current manga,
"Gunsmith Cats"
- From a post by Michael Studte

Animerica #3 implies more BGC-related OAVs (doing one for Paradise
Lost, set in the BGC universe, although I don't think it's going to
have any BGC characters in it).
- Ken Arromdee

As we now know, there will be a BGC TV series and ADV Films has licensed
it for domestic release in the US. - Steve Pearl


o WILL THERE BE ANY SEQUELS TO THE "RIDING BEAN" OAV?

In all likelihood, No. Unfortunately, Riding Bean, like Bubblegum
Crisis, is another victim of the Artmic/Youmex split. Specifically,
the rights to Riding Bean are owned jointly by Artmic and Youmex, who
endured a messy partnership rift several years ago. As a result,
neither company is willing to sell or relinquish its share of the
rights to the other, so these titles are left in the lurch.

Rally fans, however, may be interested in Gunsmith Cats, a five
volume continuing manga series by Riding Bean character designer,
Sonoda Kenichi which has recently been animated and released
domestically by AD Vision.
- Roderick "Spontaneous FAQ Writer" Lee

o WHAT ARE JAPANESE PHONE CARDS AND PHONE BOOKS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO
DO WITH ANIME/MANGA?

These are actually two different things.

-Phone Cards:

Ma Bell in Japan is still a national monopoly / government bureacracy.
Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) charges 10 yen per time unit for
local calls. 10 yen coins are an annoyance to carry around. Sort of
like a pocket full of nickles. But if you stuff a larger denomination
coin into a phone, you don't get change for time/money not used.
Enter the telephone card. It is a cheap piece of plastic the size of
a credit card with a magnetic widget inside. You buy them from a
vending machine or a kiosk (in denominations ranging from 500 to 5000
yen). The green phones are (mostly) wired to accept phone cards (yes,
there are different color phones depending on the type of call).
Stuff a telephone card into the slot and you don't have to worry about
carrying around a pocket full of nickles and the magnetic widget
counts off each time unit as you use it. There cards are particularly
useful for international calls. Each time unit costs 100 yen and they
count off very quickly.

With all these little plastic cards running around, somebody in
Japan got the idea of putting pretty pictures on them. Like
mountains, or rivers, or forests, or movie stars, or whatever.
Certain types of fans like to collect these cards (sort of like
a cross between expensive postage stamps and baseball cards).
For these fans, companies print up limited runs of cards with
desireable pictures on them and then sell them for double the
face value (spend 1000 yen to get a 500 yen card). The fans
value these cards as long as they are not used at all. So
they are another anime/manga collectable.
- from a post by Eric Kouba
- Phone Books
This is a term used to describe the various manga magazines. These
periodicals are typically printed on newsprint, and contain several
ongoing manga stories (which, if popular, are usually collected into
collections). These magazines are VERY thick and often resemble
phonebooks.


o TRANSLATED AND/OR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MANGA AVAILABLE IN THE USA

There are a relatively large number of English language manga available in
the US. Publishers releasing translated manga include: EPIC, VIZ, ANTARCTIC
PRESS, and DARK HORSE. For a comprehensive list of translated manga, please
refer to the (upcoming) English Translated Manga list. (See "Anime
Resources")


o WHY DO JAPANESE ANIME MAGAZINES COST SO MUCH IN THE U.S.?

If you purchase your anime magazines at a Japanese bookstore like Kinokuniya
or Nikaku, then you are getting your magazine for the best price short of
picking it up in Japan. These bookstores usually charge $1.70 per Y100,
which seems to be the standard rate for all Japanese periodicals. (This
amount varies with the exchange rate) If, however, you are purchasing these
magazines at a Comic shop, you are likely spending upwards of $15 each (with
the risk that an unscrupulous shop owner might be removing the neat inserts).
The reason why Comic shops are much more expensive is that Comic shops
usually receive comic items at a hefty discount (around 40%). But they are
getting these magazines at close to the same cost we are paying for them. So
they have to mark up the cost in order to maintain the same margins.

Typical magazine costs:

In Japan: At Kinokuniya/Nikaku At a comic shop:

$4.00 $6.00 $13


For the addresses of Nikaku and other Japanese bookstores, please
refer to the Anime Resources FAQ.

--Steve Pearl

o WHO OR WHAT IS THIS PUMA PERSON?


PUMA once on r.a.anime.
PUMA write funny posts.
PUMA had biggest funniest .sig!
PUMA had other name -- Keith Andreano!
PUMA otaku at finest!
PUMA should represent us all!
PUMA's fave manga: NAUSEA of the Valley of Passing Wind! Now that
miasma! No wonder they wear masks! Must grow a lot of beans there!

PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!
PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!
PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!PUMA!

or in English:

By day, PUMA masquerades as Keith J. Andreano, a former participant
of rec.arts.anime. Keith lost his account, though, a few months ago.
A black, black, day.

--From posts by David Blume & Sea Wasp

Addendum: Puma has since returned and left the net again. To the joy and
sorrow (take your pick) of the various other netters.

[greg]

...CONTINUED


o WHAT DO ALL THESE ANIME ACRONYMS STAND FOR?

GUNDAM: General purpose Utility, Non-Discontinuity, Augmentation
Maneuvering

VOTOMS: Vertical One-man Tank for Offensive Maneuvering

MOSPEADA: Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Drive Aut

GERWALK: Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive
Knee joint

o PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT JAPANESE HONORIFICS AND TERMS OF ADDRESS

Here are the most common honorifics and terms of address.

-sama Very respectful ending. Not normally used with someone's
names. Used to people of superior status, like your boss,
or to your guests as a host. Envelopes should be addressed
with "-sama". A shopkeeper might call a customer
"o-kyaku-sama" (Respected Mr. Customer).

sensei A respectful term meaning "teacher", also used with
physicians. Frequently used to refer to experts in a
field or people in any respected occupation. Lawyers,
master chefs, fashion designers, and even some manga
artists are called "sensei". Sometimes used like an
honorific with a name or title, as in "kouchou-sensei"
(Mr. Principal, Sir).

-san Usual term of respect. It can stand for Mr. and Ms., and
is attached to either first or last names, and names of
occupations like "o-mawari-san" (Mr. Policeman). You
use it for strangers and people you don't know well, but
are more or less the same social status. When in doubt,
use "-san".

However, never use "-san" with your own name or your
family members' names. Also, it shouldn't be used to refer
to famous people, since a small degree of intimacy is
implied.

High school girls are usually called "-san".

sempai Somebody in the same general social class, but socially
superior to you. "Sempai" can also be used as an honorific.

Older students may be addressed respectfully as sempai,
especially by girls.

-kun Used by a socially superior male to a socially inferior
male. Familiarly used among male students and boys who
grew up together. Recently, some teachers call girl
students and some bosses call office ladies with "-kun",
but it's still considered a masculine suffix.

High school boys are called "-kun". Girls go from "-chan"
to "-san" in high school, but boys go through a period of
"-kun" in between.

- Calling someone by a family name alone is being very
familiar (or rough). Calling someone by given name
alone is less rough, but more familiar. Using no
honorific when one is expected can be an expression of
contempt.

-chan Intimate form of address. Families that are close use it,
and "-chan" is often used to, and by, very young children.
Used with given names, abbreviations of given names, and
nicknames, but not family names. Children who grow up
together (like Madoka and Hikaru), may keep using "-chan"
into adulthood. Note: to call a social superior "-chan"
without reason is very insulting.


Family terms are also common terms of address.

(Note: One may sometimes identify a person by taking the listener's
point of view, as when a man refers to himself as "father" to his
children.)

Referring to Addressing
yours someone's yours (*) someone's

grandfather sohu ojii-san ojii-san ojii-san
grandmother sobo obaa-san obaa-san obaa-san
uncle oji oji-san oji-san oji-san
aunt oba oba-san oba-san oba-san
elder brother ani onii-san (o)nii-san [Name]-san
elder sister ane onee-san (o)nee-san [Name]-san

These six forms of address occur a lot. Children call strangers
by the above family member terms, depending on whether what type of
relative they consider them old enuf to be. (A good example of
this is a scene recently described in this newsgroup where a child
addresses a question to a young woman as "oba-san", and she responds,
referring to herself as "oNEE-san".)

father chichi otou-san (o)tou-san/papa otou-san
mother haha okaa-san (o)kaa-san/mama okaa-san
younger brother otouto otouto-san [Name] [Name]-san
younger sister imouto imouto-san [Name] [Name]-san
daughter musume ojou-san [Name] [Name]-san
son musuko musuko-san [Name] [Name]-san
wife tsuma/kanai oku-san omae/[Name] oku-san
husband shujin goshujin(-sama) anata goshujin(-sama)
[Surname]-san

Some ways of saying "you":
otaku very polite
sochira very polite
anata polite, common(*)
kimi informal masculine pronoun, common(*)
omae very informal or rough(*)
anta very informal or rough contraction
temae very rough (Note: can also mean "I")
onore very rough (Note: can also mean "I")
kisama very rough

Some ways of saying "I":
watakushi very polite
kochira very polite
watashi polite, common(*)
atakushi polite feminine contraction
kotchi polite
washi informal masculine contraction, used by old men
atashi informal feminine contraction
boku informal masculine pronoun, common, used by boys/young men(*)
uchi informal feminine
ore very informal or rough

I've marked with a * the ones that come up frequently. Learning them
will make watching unsubtitled anime more pleasant, but there's no
need to memorize them, all at once.

You may notice that the very rough words for "you" are often
translated as curses. These are pronouns that insultingly imply
the speaker's superiority. They come up often as fighting words.

- From a posting by Theresa Martin

o WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND ROBOTECH AND IT'S COMPONENT SHOWS?

Sherman, set the Way-Back machine to 1982, in Japan. It was then that a
series by name of Super Dimension Fortress Macross first aired on Japanese
television, a product of Tatsunoko.

After Macross ended in 1983, Tokyo Movie Shinsha's Super Dimension Century
Orguss took its place on the airwaves. Orguss shared some common creators
with, and had a few in-joke references to Macross. Beyond that, there was
no relation. When Orguss finished its run of episodes, another "Super
Dimension" show took its place: Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross.
This is also in 1983. Bear in mind that these "Super Dimension" shows
had little in common save the title. They were not related in any way,
save for the brief references in Orguss mentioned above.

Megazone 23, one of the first OVAs (Original Video Animation), was
released in 1984. It had the same character designer as Macross and
Orguss, one Haruhiko Mikimoto. On television, a short-lived series by
name of Genesis Climber Mospeada came and went. Theatrically, the
Macross movie was released (its title, Macross: Oboete Imasuka has been
translated as Macross: Love, Do You Remember? or Macross: Do You Remember
Love). The Macross movie was more of a retelling of the Macross series,
rather than a sequel.

Let's wander over to North America. Sometime around mid- to late 1984,
the rights to the Macross series were acquired by Harmony Gold.
Originally, Macross was slated to be translated rather faithfully, and a
TV-movie compilation of the first three episodes had been broadcast.
However, the "golden number" for television syndication is 65 episodes -
13 weeks of daily weekday episodes. So, in order to pad out the series,
Macross was reworked a little, Southern Cross and Mospeada were hastily
adapted and tacked on to the end, and the 85-episode Robotech series was
born, first aired in 1985. (An extra transition episode was created by
editing footage from Macross and Southern Cross together.)

Now things get a little murky. Sometime around 1985-1986, back in Japan,
Shogakukan commissioned an English translation of the Macross movie,
which was then titled Super Space Fortress Macross. Also, Megazone 23
Part II was released on video.

In 1986, Macross Flashback: 2012, a 30-minute OAV, was released in Japan.
This was 22 minutes of scenes from the Macross series and movie, as well
as images from various Macross publications, edited to accompany music
from the series, plus eight minutes of new animation, showing some footage
previously cut from the movie, as well as a showing what happened to our
heroes after the war. Back in the US, Harmony Gold was riding the crest
of Robotech's popularity, and had started production on Robotech II: The
Sentinels and a Robotech movie. Sentinels was to be a brand-new series
of 65 episodes, written in North America and animated in Japan, for North
American broadcast. For a variety of reasons, this was never completed,
and as a consequence never released on television. The Robotech movie was
a re-edited Megazone 23, combined with footage from Southern Cross, plus a
12-minute happy ending, comprised of new animation commissioned from Japan.
The movie was barely released (a few test screenings and a showing at the
Los Angeles Animation Celebration) before vanishing from the big screen
altogether.

Back to Japan: Megazone 23 Part II is translated to English with Japanese
subtitles, for use as a Japanese teaching aid. The 12 minutes of new
footage for the Robotech Movie is included on this video, which was
released as Megazone 23 Part II: Foreign Edition.

A quick hop back to North America - in 1987, Super Space Fortress Macross
makes it to North American shores - minus 18 minutes of footage - as
Clash of the Bionoids.

In 1988, seventy-six minutes of completed footage from Sentinels was
compiled and released on video.

In 1992, Macross II - a sequel to the Macross movie - is released
nearly simultaneously in Japan and the United States.

--From a posting by Emru Townsend


o HAS ANYONE SEEN THAT MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE GUNHED MOVIE?

A. The live-action Gunhed movie is about ninety minutes of B-movie
science fiction mind candy. The interesting aspect of it is that
the dialogue is in both Japanese and English (The English has
Japanese subtitles). Believe it or not, it is available on LD.
Try any place that deals in anime LD's, but especially those in
the Resource Guide.

The video you saw is by the Vancouver industrial group Front Line
Assembly who purchased the rights, for about $10,000, to use the
movie footage in their video, "Mindphaser," which is available on
their Tactical Neural Implant album. In return, the Japanese are
free to use the "Mindphaser" video to demonstrate Surround sound
tv's in their video showrooms. The agent responsible for this video
arrangement is best known for his work with Nettwerk videos, so it
is not beyond the realm of possibility to see another joint agreement
with another Nettwerk band. Unfortunately, FLA has not yet released
"Mindphaser" to the home video market.

Other related material includes a three volume comic by Viz and
follow-up graphic novel as well as a PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 game
just called Gunhed. In North America, the TG 16 title is Blazing
Lazers. (The game appears to be unrelated to the manga series though)



o WHAT ARE JIS KANJI CODES AND HOW DO I USE THEM?

For everything you ever wanted to know about JIS kanji codes, and a
list of programs that can use it for many kinds of computers,
anonymous ftp pub/JIS/japan*.inf from ucdavis.edu, or
pub/anime/lyrix/JIS.inf from romulus.rutgers.edu. I [Steve Pearl]
am willing to email it to you upon request if you cannot ftp.
(From a posting by Theresa Martin)

o WHAT DOES AD POLICE REALLY STAND FOR? DOES IT STAND FOR:
a)Advanced Defense Police
^ ^ ^
b) ADvanced Police
^^ ^
c) About-to-Die Police
^ ^ ^
According to Animerica, the answer is:
a) Advanced Defense Police (per ANIMERICA #0)
^ ^
Of course according to the computer terminals in "Scoop Chase" (BGC8)
it's ADvanced Police.
^^ ^
Given the Japanese people's famous accuracy and consistancy in using
English, it is quite possible that both A & B are right.


o WHAT IS THIS ANIME MUCK AND HOW DO I ACCESS IT?

Well, since there have been several requests on how to get to AnimeMUCK, here
is a simple way to get there.

First off, you need to be able to use "Telnet" or have a program called
"TinyFugue" (Commonly refered as 'tf'), which still uses Telnet to connect
to the muck.

Now, type in 'telnet' and you should get 'telnet>' prompt. For some of you,
you might have to type in the following, 'toggle crlf' so you will get
line feeds after your returns. If you do not get those linefeeds, you will
not be able to do much until otherwise.

After doing that, type in, 'open anime.tcp.com 2035' or for those of you who
do not have a name server, type in, 'open 128.95.10.106 2035'

>From here on out, it is the MUCK.

Now it would be suggested that you get the MUCK documents from either
piggy.ucsb.edu or glia.biostr.washington.edu. They have a document called
mudenc.txt and mudref.txt. Those two files tell you a little on how to get
around on a muck and how to MUCK. Also, for those of you who wish to program
on a muck, you might want to get the following text files from the sites:
mufman, muftut, mufref. There is also 'info new.muf' and 'info new.prims'
on the muck for the TinyMUCK 2.2fb4.2f for the FB server's primatives that
tend to make a few more things easier (Or harder) for the programmer.

For those of you who are connecting as guests, here is some simple commands
to know before you get discouraged...

SAY <Message> or "<Message> - Say does not have to be in capitals. This will
allow you to say something to people.

WHISPER <Person>=<Message> - This will allow you to say something to a
specific person. Only that person will here it, but the person must ALSO
be in the same room.

POSE <message> or :<message> - This will allow you to pose something. To
best show what a pose is, here is an example:
Priss types in:
:waves hello to you.
It appears as:
Priss waves hello to you.

PAGE <person>=<message> - This will allow you to send a message to a person
who is not in the room you are in.

LOOK [<object|person|exit>] - By typing 'look', you look at the room you are
currently in. (One word of warning, for those of you who are running on
TELNET, there will be NO WORD WRAPPING, and if you are typing in a busy room,
your typing will be mixed in with it. Sorry, there is nothing I can tell you
how to avoid this except maybe sneaking TF onto your account. CaveMUCK's
Hawkeye or CaveMUCK's Jingoro at cave.tcp.com 2283 can tell you where you can
find tf for your account.) Looking at a person/object/direction will show
whatever they just happen to describe themselves as.

These are just the really basic commands to help you out on exploring. Right
now, I can not give you a detailed map of AnimeMUCK since one, I am not a
good Mapper. So it is best for you to just poke around and take a look
for yourself. There are a few places that are not quite done yet, since we
are fairly new. But this should be enough for you to see what to do.
(From a posting by Priss)

o WHAT IS THIS SAILOR MOON THING, ANYHOW?

Sailor Moon is a Bandai television series initially aimed at 14 year-old
girls. The main characters are Tsukino Usagi, Mizuno Ami and Hino Rei (true
through episode 21). Usagi is a ditzy blonde with looong ponytails and was
the first of the girls to become a "se-ra- fuku bishojo senshi", or
sailor-suited cute girl warrior (at this point the character designs/costumes
began picking up male fans). Ami and Rei joined the team in episodes 8 and
10, respectively. Kino Makoto joined the group at episode 25.

In episode one Usagi is given a brooch that can transform her into a
superhero dedicated to fighting the forces of the "Dark Kingdom". Her costume
is an abbreviated, and I *do* mean abbreviated, version of her school
uniform. Her superhero name is Sailor Moon. Ami becomes Sailor Mercury,
Rei becomes Sailor Mars and Makoto becomes as Sailor Jupiter.

The girls gain special attack powers that derive from the kanji that
spell the planet their name represents (their real names are spelled with the
same kanji, by no coincidence). Thus, Tsuki-no Usagi is Sailor Moon and
throws her crescent-shaped tiara (which glows and acts like a killer
frisbee). Sailor Mercury (Mizu-no Ami) can hurl bubbles of fog to confuse
and disorient. Sailor Mars (Hi-no Rei) throws fireballs. Sailor Jupiter
(Ki-no Makoto) Lightning. She calls it "Supreme Thunder". She uses a
deadly whirwind of roses in the manga.

The series is campy and parodies many different series. One episode even
has the team visiting an animation studio. I think most of its appeal is in
its humor and its cult-like following. Great anime it isn't. Great fun it is.
(From a posting by Chris Swett with corrections by Robert DeLoura)

Addendum: Sailor Moon (aka Serena) has made her American debut on American TV.
Please refer to Sailor Moon FAQ or the Sailor Moon newsgroup for more
information. (See the Resources section of the FAQ).

o IS THE CRITERION EDITION OF AKIRA SUBTITLED? HOW IS THE EXTRA FOOTAGE?

A short review of the Criterion Collection AKIRA:
- The film print was a theatrical print. As such, it has such things as reel
change marks and scratches which wouldn't be present on a virgin print.
One would hope Streamline Pictures had provided a better print to
Criterion.
- The audio (save for the dubbing, that's a completely different issue) is
quite good. The surround effects (particularly in the Council meeting
scene) sound better in the Japanese soundtrack than in the English one.
- The supplements (described below) are about par for Criterion. One
caveat: they mispelled "manga" as "magna" throughout the supplements
(a text note with the disc explains this as well).

Contents of the Criterion Collection AKIRA laserdisc:
- The movie (124 minutes long) in CAV format
- English soundtrack in digital tracks, Japanese soundtrack in analog tracks
- Supplements (all supplements are in the disc itself in CAV format):
- Japanese and English trailers for the film
- A description of the various stages of the production of the film
(the AKIRA manga, storyboards, character model sheets, layouts and
backgrounds, sound production, pencil tests, cel production,
photography). Apart from being an excellent description of the process
of making an anime film, this section contains a never-animated
storyboard for a sequence describing exactly how the "Akira Event"
initiated WWIII.
- The first issue of the Epic translation of AKIRA, both in full-page and
"video comic" format. The latter is a presentation of panels of the
comic, with fades, sweeps, and other special effects to show transitions
between panels. I don't think I can really describe it.
- Thousands of pencil tests, chara and mecha designs, and storyboards.

What the laserdisc doesn't have:
- Extra footage (there never existed any extra footage)
- An actual animation cel
- Subtitles (or Closed Captioning)
--From a posting by Enrique Conty


o WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT ROTTING KOR LASER DISKS

The Japanese KOR OAV Memory Box set has a problem with Laser Rot. Both the
individual OAV LDs and the Series LDs are fine.


o HEY! MY BGC 1-3 LD FROM ANIMEIGO IS HISSING! WHAT'S THE DEAL?

From Robert Woodhead:
There was a problem in the mastering of the BGC 1 LD that resulted in
noise-reduction processing not being applied. The result is that some
people may notice a small amount of hissing on the soundtrack in
quiet moments. The subsequent BGC 2-4 LD's do not have this problem.
The disc has been remastered and all discs currently shipping do not
exhibit the problem.

3M has provided us with a limited number of replacement copies, and
while supplies last, we will replace discs for those who can hear
the hiss (old fogies like me with rotten ears can't, for example).
Just call Janice at 919-251-1850 for a Return Authorization Number
and complete details.


o WHAT IS TURBO TITLER AND WHERE CAN I FIND IT?

TurboTitle by Robert Jenks, is an Amiga program for doing subtitles.
You can find it in the Fish collection of Public Domain/Shareware
programs. It is on Fish 530, v0.80. And I also recommend getting one
of the Fish database programs: Aquarium, KingFisher, or Fishcat.

You can get Fish disks via ftp at grind.isca.uiowa.edu or uxc.cso.uiuc.edu


o WHAT TV SYSTEM DOES HONG KONG USE?

Although you can obtain a reasonable selection of videos in NTSC in Hong
Kong, the offical broadcasting standard is PAL. To my knowledge all TV
Stations in Hong Kong transmits in PAL. NTSC equipment and software is
available there probably because of their close proximity to Japan, and their
fascination with new technology (and Karaoke)


o ARE MICHITAKA KIKUCHI & KIA ASAMIYA THE SAME PERSON?

At Anime Expo '92, Mikimoto Haruhiko stated to the effect that
although they're not friends, but he does know him (Kia) and that
Kikuchi and Asamiya are the same person.

Another thing to consider is that there are Newtype calendars that,
have Silent Mobius images that say (in big bold letters) Mitchitaka
Kikuchi, and then in little tiny letter Copyright 1991(?) Kia
Asamiya.


o HOW MANY RUMIK WORLD OAVS WERE ANIMATED AND WHICH ONES WERE THEY?
(dedicated to Bill Moakler)
The Rumik World OAVs are:
Fire Tripper (Available domestically from USMC)
Laughing Target (Available domestically from USMC)
The SuperGal (Available domestically from USMC)
One Pound Gospel (Available domestically from Viz Video)
Mermaid's Forest (Available domestically from USMC)
Mermaid's Scar (Available domestically from Viz Video)

Please note that The Samurai is not among them. It was not done by
Ms. Takahashi and is therefore not in any way a Rumik World story.

o WHAT IS IRC?

A great way to waste HUGE amounts of time.

Seriously, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It's basically a
multiline computer CB chat system that uses the Internet network. For
the serious anime fan, I suggest checking out: /join #anime! or /join
#anime, sometimes people are on #otaku or #manga



o WHY DOES THE AUDIO IN THE STREAMLINE NADIA TAPE SOUND SO BAD?

The opening sequence has been redone. This is what Carl had been explaining
as what happened: Toho sent Carl VHS copies to examine "before buying",
and then sent the 16mm masters for producing the dubs. Those masters did
not contain the pre-title sequence. After repeated attempts trying to get
the master, the time ran down to where there was only a couple of hours
before Nadia 1 was to be duplicated. At the last minute, Carl took the VHS
copy, blew it up to D2, recorded the lines HIMSELF, turned down the audio on
the original trying to get the original dialogue as low as possible, without
really losing the music as much as possible.

Carl also said that he still never has gotten that master (as of AX92),
and he found the proper music track (right from the BGM CD), took out the
original sound entirely, replaced it with the CD BGM track, had a "real"
actor record the dialogue.

Since then, Nadia has been released on LD. So far,the first four episodes
have been compiled in movie format and released on a single LD.

--From a posting by Ryan Gavigan with updates by Steve Pearl

o IS SYLIA FROM BGC A BOOMER?

The evidence is as follows:
BGC #1: In a flashback, Sylia gets a data unit from her dead father which,
when read on a computer, instantly downloads his knowledge into her mind.
In #3, Meison reviews similar information (with pictures of Sylia added).
BGC #3: Right before the big fadeout, "Buraian Jei Meison" calls out
telepathically to "Shiria... Shiria Sutingurei". Sylia "hears" him and
turns back and looks at Genom Tower, disquitened.
BGC #6: At the end, Largo/Meison says that he and Sylia are both of the same
kind.
BGCrash #3: Largo remarks to Sylia that "you, like me, are a lifeform that is
neither human nor boomer, but superior to both. That is why I should have
killed you twelve years ago, along with Dr. Stingray".... However, some fans
don't accept Crash as canon because of continuity problems and overall low
series quality.

Less likely evidence:
Sylia has a somewhat unemotional personality. (But scientists are often
portrayed that way anyway.)
Mackie lusts for Sylia. (This _could_ mean that they are not related, but
probably has more to do with teenage hormones.)

It is generally believed that Sylia is at least enhanced somehow; whether or
not she's actually a boomer is unknown, as is Mackie's status. (Note that
Sylia's existence as a child does _not_ mean she isn't a boomer; the 33S
boomers in #5 and #6 were made of flesh and blood and could heal, so boomers
that grow aren't very far-fetched.)


o WHAT IS ANIMEIGO'S POLICY FOR RELEASING THEIR TITLES ON LASER DISC?

Our choice of what comes out on LD is guided by two main factors.

1) Our estimation of how successful the LD would be (in other words, will
it sell at least 1000 copies)

2) Our internal resource limitations (money, and more importantly, staff
resources). We have limited resources and LD's chew up a lot more money
and time than tape releases do.

We would LIKE to release everything on LD. We are committed to releasing
all of the UY Movies on LD as long as they each sell 1000 units, and we
are working hard to broaden LD marketing out of the Otaku market segment
and so up the sales, so we expect this will be a trivially easy goal to
reach.

-- Robert Woodhead



o WHAT IS JACOSUB AND HOW CAN I CONTACT THE AUTHOR?

JACOsub is a full-featured shareware package for doing professional-
quality video titling work on the Amiga. Features include an integrated
script editor, powerful timing capabilities, non-sequential overlapping
time events, multi-buffered display, clean transitions, on-the-fly
timing adjustments, and more. The JACOsub script format is probably
the most powerful and flexible available, and it has become a de-facto
standard in the fan-subbing community. Overall, the program provides the
user with a productive video titling environment.

JACOsub requires any model Amiga with at least 1.5 megabytes of
memory, and preferably two storage devices. The software will work
stand-alone. Video work requires a genlock, a video source (like a
laserdisc player) and a VCR. Currently only the Amiga is supported. A
version for DOS is under development; WindowsNT/95 is planned
(tentatively), but don't hold your breath.

JACOsub has its own home page on the World Wide Web. The web page
always has the latest version, some documentation information, and
links to an FTP archive of JACOsub-compatible anime scripts. Go to:

http://www.unicorn.us.com/jacosub/

The current version is 2.6. It may be obtained from:

WWW site: ftp://ftp.unicorn.us.com/pub/jacosub/

Aminet: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/show/

Email: ftpmail@animece.oau.org - put the words "send jcosub26.lzh"
in the message body; a uuencoded file will be sent back to you.

Credit card shareware registration: http://www.alberts.com

The Support BBS for JACOsub is Anime Central, fidonet address
1:363/137, phone number (407) 645-2241, up to 14,400 baud. The JACOsub
file area contains the latest version of the software, plus several
user-contributed JACOsub scripts. The current version may be requested
via the ftpmail server or fidonet file request (FREQ).

JACOsub was written by Alex Matulich. He may be reached at
matulich_a@seaa.navsea.navy.mil. His old address, alex@bilver.oau.org,
will forward automatically to the new address.

The author's snailmail address is 1515 Jefferson Davis Hwy #820,
Arlington, VA 22202.


o IS NAUSICAA WEARING PANTS?

YES, DAMMIT!! <ahem> Yes, she's wearing tan-colored tight pants. In
the sequence with the Ohmu chasing Yupa, you can even see the seam lines.
- Enrique Conty


o WHAT IS "H"?

The 8th letter of the alphabet? Seriously, "H" (echi/ecchi) is a
Japanese slang term for "perverted." It derives from the letter H,
which is the first roman letter in the American spelling of "hentai,"
which is the Japanese word for "perverted." (more or less)


o HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE CARL MACEK'S LAST NAME?

The "c" is a soft-c, pronounced like an "s" (not a "ch"). Also,
the "a" is long. Roughly, the two syllables sound like "may-sick," as
in "Watching this MAY make you SICK."

(This FAQ entry is Copyright 1994, HardKOR Vision-ary Publications. All rights
reserved. All lefts reversed.

o WHAT'S THIS ABOUT QUANTUM LEAP AND AKIRA?


There was going to be a "Quantum Leap" ep in which Sam leaps into an animated
character, and the animation was to be done by Katsuhiro Otomo of "Akira"
fame. Sam was *not* going to be leaping into Akira. If you saw clips of
"Akira" on any NBC promos during the Olympics, they were probably put there
for the benefit of anyone familiar with Otomo. The actual ep would've consisted of
original animation, animation that probably didn't exist at the time of the
promo, hence the Akira clips. (Consider this: Do you really think that Streamline
*and* whatever Japanese company that owns the rights to Akira would've let NBC
meddle with "Akira"? Yeah, right.)

Now that Quantum Leap is cancelled, the only prospect for new Quantum Leap
adventures is a possible movie a few years from now, and it is doubtful that
this will be done using the animation concept. Oh well.

-Roderick Lee

<>

Steve
The OEM of raai
---
Stephen Pearl (Starbuck) steve@otaking.com
<http://www.cybercomm.net/~starbuck/index.html>
"If we get the transient FAQs, then we'll feel the info-high"
--Sharon Apple, _Information High_
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited by Steve Pearl- Moderator, rec.arts.anime.info
Email submissions to anime-info@cybercomm.net and questions about the
newsgroup to anime-info-request@cybercomm.net

[usamimi]

I remember people fighting over calling Bulma "Bloomer", but not "Boomer", wow...that was a thing?! XD

When I have more time I'm gonna read this whole thing, I love reading this old stuff.

[greg]

Reading through this, I recognized many names I was used to seeing on rec.arts.anime: Ken Arromdee, Hitoshi Doi, Enrique Conty, Emru Townsend, David Blume, Theresa Martin... Nostalgic!

[Heero]

LOL, I NEVER knew that Quantum Leap thing, that is really crazy.

[Path]

Wow, Steve Pearl, I remember him. I think it was at the Rutgers NJ anime club that I met him. Thinking about it, he might have even been the person that lent me that VHS fansub of Whispers of the Heart in the late 90s. RIP.

[greg]

I never knew that Satoshi Urushibara designed characters for BGC after reading this FAQ, either. I thought that since Sonoda did the art for the LD covers and such, he must have done them all. Now that I think of it though, those sultry vampire Boomers certainly have a Urushibara flair to them, as well as Vision. Sonoda's and Urushibara's art style is fairly similar, actually.

Crap, now I need to re-watch BGC, and very soon!

[Fireminer]

Can anyone here share with me details about Enrique Conty?

[Drew_Sutton]

Can anyone here share with me details about Enrique Conty?

Can anyone here share with me details about Enrique Conty?

I don't know how much more detail you're looking for (and I don't think greg posts here very much more nor do I know how much anyone from the r.a.a days is around here).

Your post bumping this thread up again, Fireminer, I recognized something that I missed before. I recognized another name from greg's post above; it was never a name I'd heard through fandom 'lore' but they sent an email to the Akihabara Rendition's podcast shortly after we first started (it wasn't Conty though). Out of curiosity, I started looking through r.a.a's archives for the person that mailed us, out of curiosity but then I started looking for Conty's post history. According to what I saw, in the early 1990s, he was an editor for r.a.a until about the mid-90s or so, when Steve Pearl took over. While being an editor for r.a.a, he did some translation of the Kimagure Orange Road manga along with Hitoshi Doi, William Chow and others. It also looks like he was involved with Anime Central pretty early on, too. At the time, he resided around Chicago. His usenet accounts were either with work email addresses or local ISP accounts; I tried looking him up on LinkedIn using that but did not find him. He seems to have stopped posting to r.a.a in 1999.

[Fireminer]

I don't know how much more detail you're looking for (and I don't think greg posts here very much more nor do I know how much anyone from the r.a.a days is around here).

Your post bumping this thread up again, Fireminer, I recognized something that I missed before. I recognized another name from greg's post above; it was never a name I'd heard through fandom 'lore' but they sent an email to the Akihabara Rendition's podcast shortly after we first started (it wasn't Conty though). Out of curiosity, I started looking through r.a.a's archives for the person that mailed us, out of curiosity but then I started looking for Conty's post history. According to what I saw, in the early 1990s, he was an editor for r.a.a until about the mid-90s or so, when Steve Pearl took over. While being an editor for r.a.a, he did some translation of the Kimagure Orange Road manga along with Hitoshi Doi, William Chow and others. It also looks like he was involved with Anime Central pretty early on, too. At the time, he resided around Chicago. His usenet accounts were either with work email addresses or local ISP accounts; I tried looking him up on LinkedIn using that but did not find him. He seems to have stopped posting to r.a.a in 1999.

Thank you so much for all that hard work! But can I ask you to clear up a point? This Fanlore page on r.a.a stated that Steve Pearl was the only moderator of r.a.a. Maybe Conty worked under him?

Also, is this the William Chow you mentioned?