The Old School Otaku Lounge

All those posters above are available for purchase btw...

Now to show some pics of the NT dvds that shipped with some of the last issues I collected in 2002. The blue one featured a review of Studio BROCCOLI productions like Aquarian Age and DiGi Carat. On the dvd were some episodes of the latter. The red disc showed the voice actresses from Kiddy Grade and Shoji Kawamori (macross mecha guru) testing some high end Panasonic AV. The orange disc had a review of Cyborg 009 (new and old) that I didn't watch. Lastly, the yellow disc included PATLABOR ova (?) vids and interviews about the movies.

Of course, there were lots of PV ads for animations, like studio GONZO shows, Millennium Actress, plus a quick tour of the Bandai Gundam Plamo factory. Fortunately, my all-region KOSS dvd player still works after all these years

Some favorite layouts from what I call the "otaku databooks" that were included in special issues, like the 5-year anniversary ones.
Readers could see what was popular each year, on the covers, and in the calendars. Collector merchandise was photographed, and summer events detailed.
One of the most crucial to me was a catalog of every published cover, which helped me find issues I needed to fill gaps.

oh wow I love those scans! esp. the animation fan then and now one! Would you mind terribly if I posted that scan on my podcast tumblr? (with full credit to you on the scans, of course!)

I'd LOVE to see the breakdown of what each of the numbered notations in the 1985 v. 1995 comparison mean. I think the most important change between the two pictures is the computer in the 1995 one (noted as #1). But there's other things that are not "numbered" that are amusingly notable, like LDs v. VHS tapes and the '95 guy has a bunch of plushies. The other thing that amuses me, despite most other things changing, of course an otaku still has a Gundam.

usamimi wrote:oh wow I love those scans! esp. the animation fan then and now one! Would you mind terribly if I posted that scan on my podcast tumblr? (with full credit to you on the scans, of course!)

Feel free, or you can wait till I post more. The fan pictures are from the 10th Anniv. Memorial Book 1985-1995, which was a 66 page freebie. There was also a 10th anniv Postcard booklet with images from reader favorites. Generally, most of the inserts only concerned one subject (but they fit on the scanner better than the large magazine format).

I also have most of the calendars and "art cards" for things like holiday notes, audio cassette covers.

Wow that sounds awesome! I can't wait to see more.

Here are the first and last pages of the "THEN and NOW" article...

Very cool! Thanks so much for the scans, labsenpai!

I have seen that 1985/1995 past & present picture somewhere before, actually. There may have even been an English translation, too. If not, I can probably translate much of it, if you can provide a higher resolution scan because it is a bit hard to read.

One more thing that is worth noting about the 1985/1995 picture is that it is a testament to the popularity of the Sega Saturn in Japan. Whenever you hear a know-it-all talking about what a failure the Saturn was and how it was a terrible game system, they do not know how popular the Saturn was in Japan. In fact, it was Sega's most successful game system since the Mega Drive (aka Genesis) was not very popular and lagged behind the PC Engine (aka Turbografx 16).