Evidence #22: (You can still) Rock in Animerica Segment (Vol.4 No 1, 1995)

It's been almost 2 years too long, but were back again...

Well it is time for the holiday season once more, and I won't end the year off without posting something up for you readers who still keep up with this site. This was an issue that I've been wanting to post for a while now, especially since I got all of Space Adventure Cobra earlier this year from Nozomi Entertainment on DVD (which you can watch the show on their youtube channel for free if you care). Space Adventure Cobra is a show that after every episode, I kept saying to myself "This is the GREATEST ANIME EVER MADE!!!" I kid you not, I ended every episode saying just that sentence to myself over and over again. If you think I might be crazy, then see the show for yourself.

As for this particular issue, I believe I've had this issue for a couple of years by this point, and did buy it from the usual comic book shop in Raleigh NC as I do every year. This is another issue that was kindly autographed by Trish Ledoux and her husband Toshifumi Yoshida at either Animazement 2013 or 2014, since they were both present both years. So lets get things started by posting up a bunch of images of articles, interviews, reviews, fan art and advertisements that make up what Animerica truly is:

This time "From the Editor," Trish Ledoux writes about how it was to work with female booty aficionado Buichi Terasawa when she was employed for the marketing firm A-Girl. Interesting enough (or probably not), Trish defends Terasawa's art style of pure REAR-sploitation by stating that he can at least draw women a heck of a lot better than most contemporary anime/comic artist out there (here's looking at you Masami Obari / Rob Leifeld). To sum up, Terasawa has class, which speaking of...

... here is such an article with the classy manga author. I am not sure if Terasawa still comes to Comic Con in San Diego, or if he still dresses in black as his manga secret agent persona out in the public. Regardless. this is still a good interview, which Terasawa talks about his beginnings as a manga artist, and even covering his other works. There is even a small write up about how the Cobra: The Psychogun project was shelved at this time, only to be revived a decade later to an OVA. There is also a write up by a Betsy Sherman, who seems to state that the movie is way to anti-feminist for her taste. Well it wouldn't be for her taste, because Cobra is for real men... and women who who like the idea of having leather outfits with guns attached to them.

Here we have the other articles about anime that is current in Japan as of 1995, as well as reviews and articles about the recently releases that came stateside during this time. You can find a really good article from Carl Horn about his view on the Manga Ent. release of the Patlabor 2 movie, the opinions about Evangelion from the staff (who complain that the robots look too thin, and need to be bigger. Ah, Anime Journalism circa. 1995...), the kind words from everyone's "semi-hated-or-loved-but-is-now-dead" Carl Macek, the letters to the editor and good ol' fanart. Also, I am guessing this is the last part of that Fatal Fury "Make My Video" Challenge back in our last Animerica post, which just seems to be a fanfic story of sorts. I am sure I have issues before this one that when posted can complete this story, but well see about that.

And lastly, all the advertisements of what was hot then, but now long forgotten about now. Hey, at least you can get Hentai tapes for a couple of bucks off regular MSRP, and get excited for what is coming to the ADV library in 1996 with those hot new titles!!!

Well, I think that is all we have time for in this last segment of 2014. I cannot guarantee if I will post more or less in 2015, but chances are the next post will be for the 4th anniversary of this blog. What's that going to be... I don't know yet. If you want a life update, I am still enrolled at my university, changed my major to Communication, still going to anime conventions, still run our sister site podcast, and currently in a relationship. 2014 was a pretty good year, and an interesting one at that. I hope for the best for 2015, and hope you guys are there to follow along with what will be coming out next time. So until then, I plan on giving the new year peace and love...

Evidence #18: TurboForce Vol. 3 (Jan 1993)

Happy New Year guys!!

Now that were in the New Year, and who knows when i'll post again, I might as well put in my blog time to get things started. So, let's kick off things with a magazine that just turned 21 today, as we get to party with the TurboForce magazine!!

The story on how I got this issue (well, 2 issues to be exact) takes us back to Animazement 2013. With the game rooms set up in the Marriott hotel across the street from the convention center, I decided to browse the rooms and check out what they got while snapping some pictures. Then lo' and behold, there I saw some video game magazines sitting on a table in the retro console room. I decided to just shuffle through to see what they had, and that's when I came across this magazine and decided to cycle through it. Little did I know, this was the issue that had a write up cover of Bubblegum Crisis that I saw on the internet a couple of years prior on the internet, or at least a screen cap/ what someone said about it. Also to my surprise, there were 2 COPIES of this thing. So I picked up the issue, plus some issues of Weekly Famitsu (which I could post on this site one day in the future... maybe) and went up to the guys who were running the game room. I asked if these were on sale or if I could purchase these issues from them, and they told me "Hey there free, pick a few that you like." And with a humble "YOU BET SIR!" attitude, I got the magazines that caught my eye and walked outta there with a great score.

So with that, I am going to show you what this issue of TurboForce has in store, so lets take a look:

Oh boy, the way things were advertised in the 90's and how they priced things. It seems quite clear that when it comes to products being advertised in the 1990's, they used the tactic of "Hey! You There! You're a gamer right? You're not that good at math or money, am I right? That's why you should give us your money to get this system, because you don't know what money is or how to manage currency well. But that's ok cool guy, we get it. And by get it, I mean get this system!" You can find this tactic that companies like Tiger and Atari were so so guilty of using, and look how they turned out. All in all, people who bought this spent way to much on something NOBODY ELSE HAD!!!!

This was the BGC write-up I was talking about that I heard about on the "net" a couple of years ago. It seems like when I first read this, they wrote it like Nene was the main character of this whole anime series based on what it seems to be that they watched the last OVA and were like "Oh hey, this is all of BGC that we need to put in an anime review. We got this guys!" I actual talked about this issue with the guy who runs BanzaiCon this past year and he mentioned in conversation how he had first heard of Bubblegum Crisis from reading this issue of TurboForce. So, despite that this might be a hack review 21 years later, at least it got people interested in watching this anime. And I hope they wern't disappointed to find that Nene wasn't the main star.

I have only heard of this movie being mentioned on the Adult Swim one shot pilot "Welcome to Eltingville." But, who knows if i'll ever see this piece of cinema in my life. But hey... things can happen, and they usually do.

To show the "knowledge" of anime at the time, these writers must have never seen Patlabor before. Because, correct me if i'm wrong on this, the CGI Ingram never, NEVER transforms into a CGI race car in the entire series/OVA/movies/manga/novels. I believe i'm good on this fact. However, could it have been possible? Hey, in 10 years, who knows?

I think that about covers it. I do plan on putting something out for the 3rd anniversary of this site, so stay tuned for that (as long as I don't forget.) So with a new year, new changes await... or maybe some things!!!