Evidence #6: (You can still) Rock in Animerica Segment (Animerica Vol.4 No.9)

Yea, I'm still around.

So yea, its been a while since I did one of these anime magazine "show and tell" with you internet folks, so I am back with some more evidence of anime printing past as I get to show you this next magazine of Animerica's cover of Armored Trooper Votoms.

To give a brief description of what Votoms is, well have to go back to the war torn gritty era of animes past, where we storm the beach heads of Ryouske Takahashi  mind, and get dropped back to that hellish year of 1983. Armored Trooper Votoms is a unique mecha series even for today's anime fans, because it's more focused on war through the eyes of your typical military grunt, who has no special qualities about them other than to fight and to survive. Votoms follows one particular soldier by the name of Chirico Cuvie, a former Red Shoulder under the Gilgamesh Confederation who was betrayed by his military after a suspicious mission went wrong. Chirico arrives in Uoodo City and is on the run from the Gilgamesh army from then on. Another unique thing about this series is that instead of the mechs being used as "the main guys robot suit to fight the opposing forces", its taking in context that the mechs in the show are just tools. Chirico uses the Votoms in the series like a case of beer at a frat party, as soon as one is gone another is in hand, except these mechs do not contain alcohol, sadly.

This was one of the Animerica's I picked up at Animazement a couple of months back, which my hunt for these magazines still continue and will. I mean, what good is this blog without me talking and showing anime mags? It would just be another boring "new podcast and justin.tv link" here and there. I mean, come on, who wants to see that?

So, the post must go on:

Here we have the Animerica interview with Takahashi. It pretty much contains bio info on Takahashi, his work and characters bios are seen here. Interesting read if you get the chance to go through it. Good stuff!

Here we have a Trish Ledoux editorial, just for the heck of it.

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Here we have a report of the convention tour of 1996 and a report on Noburo Ishiguro and he talks about his days working on Macross and mentions some famous people from Gainax from the glory days, and a anime Q n A with Ishiguro.

Here we got the latest anime in japan including Gall Force: Revolution and Gundam Wing from 1996, the Viz "Shop by mail" listing, and Animerica's anime reviews of Mad Bull 34, Battle Royale High School and a few more to boot.

Here's another review of 4 anime series of Legend of Crystania, Landlock, St Tail and Memories

 We also got a Sega Saturn review of Shining Wisdom and Legend of Oasis, just showing a bit of this magazine age. Hey, I like my Sega systems thank you.

Of course, what magazine isn't complete without some advertisements thrown in. Marvel at the price of Ghost in the Shell VHS tapes back in 1996 when it was NUMBER ONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!! I scored the Gunbuster DVD collection on ebay last year for about 25 bucks and gotta say, so worth it.

Wow. Here is what I wanna know, who got the grand prize to the MD Geist cell? Please, if your reading this blog, one day, tell me who you are, because I gotta know. To some of you, yes, there are Suncoast that still exist in the known universe. One in particular (last time I was there for Animazement) was the Cary Towne Center. Go and see for yourself (im to lazy to post a google link on it, you guys can do that).

And how can we forget that lovely FAN ART!!!

Well, I think that is about everything on this issue.

So yea, to give a brief personal lifestyle background on yours truly (or you can just skip to the bottom if you don't care), I've had an interesting month. I was "subject for termination" from my previous job back on the 21st of July and right now I am part of the "lucky" few (million it seems) that are unemployed at the moment. But, I am looking forward to school starting up the end of this month for my Digital Rendering and Game Design Degree from my Community College down the road. So for money I got unemployment I am working on getting and using whatever Financial Aid that is left over from paying for school. Of course I would have more in my savings if the fuel pump on my car didn't go out and cost me 600 bucks to get it fixed. Oh yea, I am currently trying to find a roommate by the end of this month. So that's my personal life as of now, but as long as I got internet and a place and magazines to go over, I think I should be good.

Well, enough of my sob story, I just hope this was interesting to read and gives you good content to check out. And I must part with you on this, You sometimes gotta run... with us!

Evidence #4: The ANIMAG Saga (ANIMAG Vol 2 Issue 2)

Hello kiddies!!!

So... its been a while since I showed any kind of magazines of anime's past on them hasn't it. Well, dry your tears because I do have something to show for in my absence. I was able to get this at Foundation's Edge in Raleigh when I was up there for Animazement, and I picked this up for 2 reasons. Number 1, its another AniMag issue but more importantly, it has SPT Layzner on (and in) it.

Now my current anime I am getting into for the past couple of months (other than doing the Fist of the North Star TV Vol. 1 DVD I got at the con) is Blue Comet SPT Layzner.To go into detail, this is an anime series that aired around the time of Zeta Gundam/ ZZ Gundam and was another mech show Sunrise wanted to cash in on, but wasn't that successful to say, especially coming from Votoms creator Ryouske Takahashi (Votoms is another mech series I'm gradually getting into as well). It's rather sad to say that this didn't do well on air in Japan and was trimmed down in episodes (same with the original Mobile Suit Gundam series) due to poor ratings. But, the premiss of the show is really good. To sum up IMO, It's like watching that Space Camp movie only its has half human/aliens and mechs in it. It also works the opposite of Total Recall, because the gang needs to "GET THEIR ASS" off of Mars to save the human race. I'm very curious how this series will turn out, and you can catch the episodes over at /m/ subs since they care enough to get this series out!!

So, now with that mini review out of the way, lets see some good 'ol anime mags and ads shall we:

I'm gonna say that this is fan art for the magazine cover. And I'm also gonna say, its really well done. With a cover like that, you gotta wonder whats beyond this 80's mech collage, lets dive in a bit further...

Here we have a Orguss cover poster (that is tied to the magazine cover, I dont know why) where we see the artistic greatness of Haruhiko Mikimoto characters. This is starting to look pretty promising, I wonder whats next?

We get to the SPT Layzner review, full of info about the show, episode descriptions and character descriptions. From what I read on the episode descriptions compared to what ( I remember) about the episodes, I am pretty sure there head on in what happens. But to think, here we have episode synopsis of a series that has never made it to the states (so far). Most magazines these days just discuss what anime we used to have licensed or a brief description of another harem show in japan like the other 123456790000 just like it. What happened to the people who would waste a weekend slaving over watching raw episodes or OVA's and doing a translation of it (to the best of their abilities) to give to the fans who may (never) one day see that series or that OVA. Well we do have that, and that is called Bittorrent... and piracy... and Amazon Japan.


What else do we have?

LASERDISC AD'S!!!! OH SNAP!!!!

Wow, if you really look at these prices, weren't you glad you didn't have any money to get this on a better quality than VHS and pay either about the same or less? So you kids who think anime is to expensive, here is your proof what hard working anime fans paid for laserdisc in 1992. I do laugh at the notion that I gotta wonder who paid 120 bucks for Crystal Triangle on laserdisc? I mean, I would barf in my mouth if I had to pay 2 bucks for it on VHS at some flea market (which... I would, even though its my personal "worst anime ever"). And, good luck putting in " Bubblegum Crush! Soldier Blue" and "Bubblegum Crsah! Masquerade 2034" on the ebay search list for those CD's... heh.

Well, what else do we have, lets dig deeper!!

Say what? Record of Lodoss War!! Oh My!!!

There is even a nice review of Record of Lodoss War OVA. There is even the back story to the OVA, which turns out this grand series is an animated Fanfiction / Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy novel. We even get episode/character reviews too, because it wouldn't be AniMag without them.

Is there anything else?

Alright, Mecha Files!!!!

No mech series is complete without synopsis of the mechs in the show about mechs. Here we have out details about the SPT Layzner and the general mechs in the series, pretty cool stuff.

And no magazine would be complete, without some ads:

It sure takes you back when you can get on your granddad's old dusty Mac 1.0 to go on BBS sites and get anime information. And we have comic ads by Tim Eldred in them, and whatever "fake" anime comics they made in the early 90's by Eternity comics (I so have a few in my collection, so don't go hating to much now).

And I found this little jem too:

                                                             *Pixar: circa 1992

Well, I think that about covers this post kiddies. Ill try and get some more stuff out in later times, because believe me, there is plenty to go around. And this is one of the many AniMag post I will be doing as long as I can get my hands on them from time to time. So for all you nerds I have this to part with you, Its Hip=2b(2)!!!...