The Old School Otaku Lounge

The latest post up at Zimmerit.moe focuses on Hideaki Anno (director of Evangelion -- but you knew that) and his early illustration work, particularly for magazines like Animec and companies like General Products. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/hideakianno

I've been working on this article off and on for months, which largely involved tracking down the various sources for these illustrations and then figuring out where to buy them. The idea kicked off back in May, when I started a thread on Twitter (which you can see here: https://twitter.com/colonydrop/status/8 ... 4970175488) featuring some of his artwork I pulled from an archived corner of the Gainax website. At one point Anno had his own section of the Gainax site, but it seems to have been scrubbed after he parted ways with them and started up Khara (which would have been sometime before the production of Gurren Lagann, I think).

In any case, I love his early work. It's rough and amateurish while still being really detailed. It's also uh, a lot more fun than any film or project he's helmed in recent memory, Shin Godzilla excluded.

Really cool! I personally find myself more interested in Anno's efforts pre-Evangelion so this was a real treat.

Rough, certainly, but I'd certainly love to be that "amateurish".

Agree with llj - it's certainly a bit rougher than much of his work but nothing like what I would consider amateurish. Great piece!

Being the proud owner of a GenPro catalog circa 1984, obtained from General Products themselves, complete with apology letter that they can't sell to me, I truly appreciate this article.

(it might be a 1985 catalog, I don't have it to hand at the moment due to my circumstances, but I've saved everything from the mailing envelope to the apology letter to the Known Space Club enrollment form. There were super cool stickers included!)

If you have seen a super cute illo of a girl walking a Dinosaur Tank, that's most likely from a scan of my sticker set.

And now I understand much more of the context of that catalog. Thank you!

SteveH wrote:Being the proud owner of a GenPro catalog circa 1984, obtained from General Products themselves, complete with apology letter that they can't sell to me, I truly appreciate this article.

(it might be a 1985 catalog, I don't have it to hand at the moment due to my circumstances, but I've saved everything from the mailing envelope to the apology letter to the Known Space Club enrollment form. There were super cool stickers included!)

If you have seen a super cute illo of a girl walking a Dinosaur Tank, that's most likely from a scan of my sticker set.

And now I understand much more of the context of that catalog. Thank you!

If you ever get a chance, I'd love to see a scan or photo of that letter! They must have received a lot of foreign correspondence, I've come across GenePro ads in Japanese hobby magazines where specifically point foreign fans towards GenePro USA. I'm impressed they shipped you all that stuff, though, that's pretty cool.

zimmerit wrote:

SteveH wrote:Being the proud owner of a GenPro catalog circa 1984, obtained from General Products themselves, complete with apology letter that they can't sell to me, I truly appreciate this article.

(it might be a 1985 catalog, I don't have it to hand at the moment due to my circumstances, but I've saved everything from the mailing envelope to the apology letter to the Known Space Club enrollment form. There were super cool stickers included!)

If you have seen a super cute illo of a girl walking a Dinosaur Tank, that's most likely from a scan of my sticker set.

And now I understand much more of the context of that catalog. Thank you!

If you ever get a chance, I'd love to see a scan or photo of that letter! They must have received a lot of foreign correspondence, I've come across GenePro ads in Japanese hobby magazines where specifically point foreign fans towards GenePro USA. I'm impressed they shipped you all that stuff, though, that's pretty cool.

Well, it was just a large envelope, with a f**kton of postage on it.

See, GenePro had a table at the '84 Worldcon (If I knew then what I know now!), with flyers and everything. I grabbed some flyers (Dave, did I send you a scan of that? can you post it?) and when I got back home I grabbed some International Reply Coupons and fired off a letter to GP. The catalog and apology letter came not long after.

In a way the catalog was somewhat cruel, as it was a treasure trove of products I could not buy. OTOH, I was getting some stuff from OZ Shop and that made up for it, kinda. And I laugh seeing the prices GP had to charge for a Nostromo cap (from Alien) made by The Thinking Cap Company. I got mine in '79 for much, much less (and still wear it!)

I will say, I was VERY impressed, taken by the energy of that catalog. It was very 'fan pro' if you get my meaning. The floorplan for the GP store/office was cool, and Cafe SID still blows my mind as a concept (a counter, a couple of stools and that's a cafe? Only Japan!). One of the big things they made a point of was how much American toys/goods they stocked! What a crazy world, huh?

Boom! GP flyer from Worldcon '84!

SteveH wrote:See, GenePro had a table at the '84 Worldcon (If I knew then what I know now!), with flyers and everything. I grabbed some flyers (Dave, did I send you a scan of that? can you post it?) and when I got back home I grabbed some International Reply Coupons and fired off a letter to GP. The catalog and apology letter came not long after.

Ahhh, that makes sense -- but, it was a bit, as you said, cruel to send you a catalog and then say "sorry, you can't buy any of this."

That Worldcon flyer is a trip, interesting that they focused on stuff like Ultraman and Godzilla. I suppose in 1984 anime fans were pretty thin on the ground, though.

zimmerit wrote:

SteveH wrote:See, GenePro had a table at the '84 Worldcon (If I knew then what I know now!), with flyers and everything. I grabbed some flyers (Dave, did I send you a scan of that? can you post it?) and when I got back home I grabbed some International Reply Coupons and fired off a letter to GP. The catalog and apology letter came not long after.

Ahhh, that makes sense -- but, it was a bit, as you said, cruel to send you a catalog and then say "sorry, you can't buy any of this."

That Worldcon flyer is a trip, interesting that they focused on stuff like Ultraman and Godzilla. I suppose in 1984 anime fans were pretty thin on the ground, though.

I don't think it was the 'thin on the ground' fandom they were even thinking about, I think it was a basic truth of Japanese thinking that we see even today, the sheer amazement that we (gaijin over the sea) even know what that stuff is. You must have run into that at some point, talking with a native Japanese and drop some knowledge and you get the "You know that? How do you know that?!" reaction.

Don't forget that the basic character of anime merchandising was "that is old, forget it, this is the new, love it", a mindset that obviously persists today, see also whatever current MOEblob show is the 'big rage'. Read ANYTHING about the GP USA fiasco and it'll hit home. Even with that super nostalgic Mikimoto poster they commissioned, they didn't 'get' that we really didn't want the new thing, we wanted Harlock and Yamato and Dirty Pair and so on and so on. Things they COULD NOT provide because nobody in Japan was making them.

Which, for a company based on the garage kit philosophy ("Nobody makes the model we want so we will make it ourselves!") is a shocking wasted opportunity, right? WE would have KILLED for, say, a resin Arcadia, maybe 3 inches long, cost around $40 USD. Dirty Pair figure kits. Yamato items like belt buckles and cosmogun kits. flippin' T SHIRTS in American sizes for god's sake (and better than the 'by rote' shirts made by Kimono My House.)

Good God where was Gatchaman and Mach Go Go Go stuff?!

(and yes, I know, Japan has learned the value of nostalgia and tapping that market but it's still piecemeal and often subsumed by some current project that ends up devaluing the original to some extent. and it's all mayfly existence, gone in 60 seconds.)

But Godzilla is universal, the Rosetta stone of Japan/western fan think. And I think Ultraman was just company management mandated.

GP had brought some minor stuff to sell, I really don't recall what-all and most was gone. Things that could be carried in luggage like small garage kits, patches, paper goods. The default stuff you always see American 'anime stores' end up with because regular stuff is overpriced and doesn't move. The table seemed to be more a place to hang out near Books Nippan and Pony Toy than anything else.

The one bad thing GP learned is American fans 'willingly' buy Japanese items at overinflated prices. In '84 (appx. 200 Yen= Dollar still in place) selling a 1000 Yen item at $9-$11 was a HUGE profit maker. Maintaining that profit scale when the GP store opened, when the Yen had soared way up, came close to 100 Yen = a Dollar, and now selling a 1000 Yen item at near $20 USD, that didn't go so well. It was a natural instinct of American fans to believe that 'direct from Japan' should result in CHEAPER goods that helped kill GP USA. That and arrogance and stupidity and other shenanigans.

But boy, Anno sure could draw. Maybe he should take some time and just do that for a few years. That might help exorcise some inner demons. Just draw lolicon girls and Macross mecha.