Letter from a blogger

Dear readers, 

You may be forgiven in thinking that I had disregarded my work on this personal journey in to the World of the UK's Anime & Manga Fandom, but with support from Jonathan Clements, and Helen McCarthy, the word got out about Andrew Osmond's article featured on the Anime News Network (ANN), of those nostalgic days of knowing what Anime (then called “Japanimation”) was back in the 80's, to finding like-minded Anime fans in the early 90's.

That was back in December 2014, and January 2015 when I had hoped many more people had found this on-going trip down memory-lane worth a read (it only takes five or six hours to read the entire blog – so far as one reader has comments have suggested).

Taking advantage of this new public relation role did take time away from blogging, that has spurred me on to organise my collection of Anime and Manga memorabilia, in an attempt to put as much of it in chronological order and try my best to immerse you the reader in the days before the World Wide Web was so wildly accessible with so much information, and social media bringing Fans together!

Some Anime Magazine & Fanzines I've yet to write about!!

I have even time off from my job and taken the opportunity to meet with some of those “movers 'n' shakers” that still remember those times and that contributed so much – I drove up North to speak with the folks at the UK's oldest retail shop that supported the Anime & Manga Fandom “The Sheffield Space Centre”, and that to this day they still attend conventions, and they have a wide selection of ephemera. [ I did some old fashioned note taking for a future timeline of this blog. - “Anime Day'91”]

Just a few metal & enamal Pins from the old days! THANKS Sheffield Space Centre.

It has also been a time to organise those early fan made videos, that so many have been lost.

From hours of VHS video tapes to get just a few minutes, will also take time away from the historical part of my blog. With the idea of returning those NTSC VHS tapes back to America for their custodians of Anime Fandom!

I've even taken so time to source some old Anime from the 90's on DVD, as wel as a few old translated manga from the old days too!

I have also spent time supporting Anime Societies in the East Midlands (here in the UK), getting to know the younger Anime fans, and I've supported (in my own way) those in the UK promoting Anime through retail releases of DVDs & Blue-rays, and those who have put pen to paper in producing informative books.

It is now my hope that from reviews and links to this blog that someone can now create factual entries in wikipedia to help preserve this history of Manga and Anime in UK's shops, and Fan run Conventions.

Over the coming years I hope you will peace together the many influences that pushed forward the growth of the UK's Anime and Manga Fandom, and a retail industry that took seed in the early 90's!

Sometime this all seems like an overwhelming task for a one-man-band such as myself!

It's all keeping me on-track......

[can you really blog about your own blog? Another link.]