Animerica - Your thoughts, first experience, etc.

[kndy]

Yeah, I remember Animerica! I picked up a few issues (first one was the Macross Plus cover, which would've made it late '94 or early '95), sussed out Trish Ledoux's email address, and asked about writing for the magazine. She told me to send in a writing sample, so I sent in a review of Blue Seed (which I'd been lucky enough to watch in advance via the local Anime Crash - yep, THOSE guys). Couple of days later she responded that it was good enough to print, and please send more! Yeah, it was honestly that easy.

I spent a couple of years writing for them - good times. Despite its high production values, Animerica felt barely different from the punk and hardcore zines I wrote for in Boston - every five or six weeks, there'd be a heavy flurry of "alright, what are we writing about?!" emails and Julie Davis, the managing editor, would get assignments sorted out. A lot of excellent writers - Jason Thompson, Carl Horn, Patrick Macias, Geoff Tebbetts, just to name a very few - passed through that mag. To their immense credit, Animerica never significantly edited a submission of mine, nor did they kill a story. Can't say that for many other publications I've worked for over the years.

I wish they were still around, but magazines are on the way out.

Awesome Mike!!! It's great to have someone on the forum that wrote for "Animerica"....glad to see those who wrote for the other anime publications also joining us on the forums!

[greg]

Went to his home and saw a Ranma painting that his girlfriend painted in his living room and he was playing a Ranma video game on his Sega Saturn.

Wrong! There was no Ranma 1/2 game on the Saturn. It must've been the one on the Sega CD. There were Ranma games on the PC Engine, Super Famicom, Mega CD, and the Playstation (that one was a piss poor Tekken clone).

My first Animerica issue was the BGC one. I loved the big, huge picture of Priss set against the yellow background. I loved the interview with the BGC creator (I forget his name... Suzuki?) and how he was somehow tying it in with Gall Force and even Terminator and such. He was truly SF-minded, and a very detailed thinker. Very different from anime creators these days who are only influenced by other anime and not much else.

When they started pushing that "J.A.I.L.E.D." initiative I lost interest in...pretty much everything Viz. At one con I went to the Viz people were trying to get people who sold recast garage kits kicked out of the dealers room, which IMO was BS. It's not like Viz sold GKs, and it's not like anyone sold legit GKs there anyway. SM CDs are one thing, but anyone who's into modeling at all knows that the lines are really grey with stuff like that and the people who spend the most money on legit stuff also have lots of pirate stuff. Just like the people I know who spend the most money on music also have the biggest collections of jacked MP3s.

Oh, I hated that J.A.I.L.E.D. crap. Not only were they going after bootlegers, but fansubbers as well. Boo! Anyone should know that fansubs boosted anime's popularity in North America during the early '90s. Most of my anime DVD collection is thanks to fansubs. The reason I am looking forward to buying Space Cobra and so many other series being released on DVD is because I've already watched them via fansubs.

As a "hard core" fan (as a joke...but maybe for real) I was into fansubs and import LDs. I wanted to hear about Gundam Sentinal and Patlabor and The Laughing Salesmen, not interviews with English voice actors staring in dubbed versions of Ranma 1/2 sold on crappy VHS tapes in cheap cardboard sleeves.

Oh, exactly! This is also why I couldn't care less about a typical anime convention anymore these days. From what others have said here, as well as my friend who went to AX for something like 12 years straight, the focus shifted on the actual Japanese creators to lousy English voice actors and other crap like MLP and stuff. Animerica did cover some import vide games, however. I also liked how they showed what anime was being aired on TV in Japan and on which channels.

[kndy]

Went to his home and saw a Ranma painting that his girlfriend painted in his living room and he was playing a Ranma video game on his Sega Saturn.

Wrong! There was no Ranma 1/2 game on the Saturn. It must've been the one on the Sega CD. There were Ranma games on the PC Engine, Super Famicom, Mega CD, and the Playstation (that one was a piss poor Tekken clone).

My first Animerica issue was the BGC one. I loved the big, huge picture of Priss set against the yellow background. I loved the interview with the BGC creator (I forget his name... Suzuki?) and how he was somehow tying it in with Gall Force and even Terminator and such. He was truly SF-minded, and a very detailed thinker. Very different from anime creators these days who are only influenced by other anime and not much else.

I remember going to his place and it could have been the PC-Engine..but what I do remember is that it wasn't a fighting game, it was an RPG game. She was playing with it most of the time, while on the Saturn, he was playing something with a big dragon. It's been a long time.

[SignOfZeta]

It was probably the Mega CD game. The Sega Saturn didn't come out until late 94 in Japan and mid 95 in the US. Judging from the timeline of your story, quantified by Animerica issues, there was no Saturn then.

[kndy]

It was probably the Mega CD game. The Sega Saturn didn't come out until late 94 in Japan and mid 95 in the US. Judging from the timeline of your story, quantified by Animerica issues, there was no Saturn then.

Probably is the Mega-CD or PC-Engine. It's been so long...lol..

[greg]

I just felt like pestering you. So if it was one of the text heavy Ranma games, was she able to get along with playing it?

[kndy]

I just felt like pestering you. So if it was one of the text heavy Ranma games, was she able to get along with playing it?

She didn't understand the word of it but she loved it. But then again I can understand, considering even if I did study Japanese in college, despite playing many Japanese video games, I know a lot goes over my head, but I still enjoy them!

[greg]

I am at the level now where I can slowly make my way through one of those text games and understand most of it, while looking up the kanji on my DS kanji dictionary. More recent games are easier though, such as the Ai Yori Aoshi game for PS2, because every line is spoken as well.

[kndy]

I am at the level now where I can slowly make my way through one of those text games and understand most of it, while looking up the kanji on my DS kanji dictionary. More recent games are easier though, such as the Ai Yori Aoshi game for PS2, because every line is spoken as well.

I'm able to read Japanese, understand certain things but my weakness is kanji. What has helped me with my Japanese is music via the liner notes, karaoke and eventually learning the lyrics combined with writing it down many times. Also, manga and reading Japanese news helped.

There was a time I was really hot when it came to learning and writing back in my college years, but it was also a time where I was also with Japanese friends, girlfriends and deep in Japanese culture.

I can still read and even play video games but my kanji needs to be better like it was back when I was college, than what it is now...

[greg]

Don't worry, kanji is the bane of every Japanese language learner. Unless they're from China, but even then I imagine that having to relearn the characters might prove difficult, and Japanese kanji evolved differently than the more simplified Chinese kanji. I think people who are highly artistic may be able to pick up kanji more easily, too.

Which reminds me, I should be devoting more time to studying for the N3 test instead of being on this forum at work during my free time...