January 1990 Pt2.

What an exciting time it was, when the letter-box could be heard and that gentle thud of mail when it hits the carpeted floor in the morning (that's right the Royal mail delivered on time at 07:30!), especially when it was a thick A4 or A5 sized envelope!

What arrived was “The Rose” the Newsletter of Anime Hasshin number 19, was the 3^rd. Anniversary issue (January 1990). This Bi-monthly Newsletter\magazine was the voice of the Anime club that had decided to be more mail-order oriented, to quote the founder Lorraine Savage “We're a family of Anime fans sharing what we love.”, and what you got was news on Manga and Anime in the U.S.A. & Canada and some translated news from Japan too.

With what was to become an average page count of 20 pages, this bumper issue had 24 pages of hand-typed two column style though-out the issue, and lots of “Black & White” artwork by fans that complimented the 'Editorial', Anime reviews, manga reviews, OVA reviews, mini synopses, and Japanese vocabulary lessons, and other Special features were all done in a strong Black ink

Information on other Clubs, Fanzines, Computer Bulletin Boards, APAs, Classifieds Adds, Conventions, Businesses, and a Members list, made such a ravenous read that you could not wait the 6 to 8 weeks for the next News Letter to come.

There was a Review on the popular TV show 'Kamagure Orange Road', a Manga review on Leiji Matsumoto's story telling and art style, as well as an OVA review on 'Cosmo Police Justy'. I also found the two page over-view of the 1966 TV show 'Prince Planet' very informative, and the Recommended Anime by Lynn & Lorraine Savage spot-lighted 'Super Gal' by Rumiko Takahashi, 'Famous Detective Holmes' by Hayao Miyazaki, and 'Sherlock Hound' the English version (in 2010 the chain of British high street stores 'HMV' released an exclusive DVD box set, that I gladly picked-up).

Many like myself would scrutinised all the information we could glean from each issue, and start an investigation and write off for answers on our own.

[Note: At the time of publication (January 1990) Anime Hasshin had 177 members Worldwide, three of whom were from England: Jay Felton, Mr. Horseman; Mr. Willett.]

[Note: This Anniversary issue had all 177 members printed, 95% had full details so you could contact them via post – it was a family of Pen-Pals.]

[Note: A synopsis is a brief summary or a condensed statement of the major points of a subject (be it Anime or Manga in our case) giving a general overall view, without opinion or review.]