Thursday, 31 March 2022
March 1991 Pt.1 ANIME DAY – The first Anime convention in the UK
The 31st. Anniversary of 'ANIME DAY 91'
The UK's first Anime convention, March 9th. 1991
March 1991 Anime-Day
Anime-Day, One Day Mini Convention, Update Centre, Sheffield; Saturday March 9th. 1991, Advanced rates; £10, Attendance 100 Total people (as far as Dave Bromehead can remember), Pre-booked attendees; 73 (see Con-Book).
Sponsored by; Sheffield Space Centre, Contact via; (send SSAE to, Anime-Day, C/O Space Centre, 33 The Wicker, Sheffield S3 6HS United Kingdom),
Committee Members; Rick Cowling (Chairman), Darren Ashmore ( Anime AV Quality conrtol, & Badge printer), Dave Bromehead (The man with the original IDEA for the one day convention), Darren Deakin ( ); AND heavily assisting us were; Don Kyte, Mike Raine, Lawrence (the fox) Stuart (the committee's technical support expert), & Roy Hughes.
Leading up to March the 9th 1991, who advertised the United Kingdom's first dedicated Anime convention, and when?
This was before people's homes had broadband internet, and many home computers did not even have 'Dial-up' access (when phones were fixed to a wall within the house), so besides 'word-of-mouth', it was printed posters, and ads. in Magazines, Newsletters, and Fanzines that gave the up and coming news!
BEFORE 9th. March 1991 Anime-Day
(Magazines; STARBURST, FANTAZIA, SPEAKEASY)
STARBURST – Britain's Premier Science Fiction Magazine. (incorporating Video NOW) Published on January 17th. 1991 For February's issue Number 150,
[NOTES: STARBURST (magazine) issue 150 February issue (Volume 13 Number 6 ISSN:0955-114X), – Convention Corner: This is a free service to convention organizers all over the World. p.050 January 17th. 1991. “ANIME-DAY Japanese Animation, 9th. March 1991, The Update Centre Cost £10 Write to: Anime-Day, c/o Sheffield Space Centre, 33 The Wicker, Sheffield, S3 8HS.”]
AND
STARBURST – Britain's Premier Science Fiction Magazine. (incorporating Video NOW) Published on February 21st. 1991 For March issue Number 151.
[NOTES: STARBURST (magazine) issue 151 March issue, (Volume 13 Number 7, ISSN:0955-114X), – Convention Corner: This is a free service to convention organizers all over the World. p.019 February 21st. 1991. “ANIME-DAY Japanese Animation, 9th. March 1991, The Update Centre Cost £10 Write to: Anime-Day, c/o Sheffield Space Centre, 33 The Wicker, Sheffield, S3 8HS.”]
The New Year's February issue of 'SPEAKEASY – The Organ of the Comics World' issue 117, has in its NEWS section; a half column Advertising Anime-Day entitled “SHEFFIELD HOSTS JAPANESE COMIC CONVENTION.”,
and the text reads;
“Dave Bromhead of the Sheffield Space Centre is organising a one-day mini-convention of Japanese comics and animation, Anime-Day, which will take place at The Update Centre in Sheffield on Saturday 9th. March. Amongst the attractions will be video rooms showing Japanese animation, art and model displays, gaming and dealer's room.”
“Registration is £10 for the day. Interested parties should contact: Anime-Day, c/o Sheffield Space Centre, 33 The Wicker, Sheffield, S3 8HS.”
The a companying illustration is the character of Mai, from the popular manga 'Mai, the Psychic Girl'
[NOTES: SPEAKEASY – The Organ of the Comics World (magazine) issue 117 – NEWS page 9. February 1991 (published date to be confirmed?)]
[NOTES: Advertisement on p.014 of SPEAKEASY, issue 117, February 1991: a quarter page sized Poster for Anime-Day.]
ANIME-DAY 9th. MARCH SHEFFIELD 1991.
[NOTES: Jerome, Fiona (February 1991), SPEAKEASY – The Organ of the Comics World (117 ed.), United kingdom: John Brown Publishing Ltd. p. 003. (Deputy Editor) Distributed in the direct sales market by Titan Distributors.]
[NOTES: Green, Stuart (February 1991), SPEAKEASY – The Organ of the Comics World (117 ed.), United kingdom: John Brown Publishing Ltd. p. 003. (Editor) Distributed in the direct sales market by Titan Distributors.]
[NOTES: FANTAZIA – The definitive superhero magazine (magazine) issue 9 – Article: Turning Japanese. P.010 Published on the 28th. February 1991 ??.]
February's issue of FANTAZIA in 1991, NEWS on page 10 under the sub-heading “Turning Japanese” wrote “A group of local fans with the help and support from The Sheffield Space Centre are organising a One-day convention in Sheffield on Saturday 9th. March 1991, which will cover the incredible range of Japanese comics and animation on the market at the moment. It will include art and model displays and video shows of Japanese animation.”
AND
[NOTES: Issues of Comics International from early 1991 have been very hard to come by, yes even on e-bay! (as of March\April 2023).]
[NOTES: Issues of 'MODEL & Accessories MART from early 1989 to the early 1990's have been very, very hard to come by, yes even on e-bay! (as of March\April 2023).]
[NOTES: Anime on load to be shown at the UK's first Anime-Day March 1991, was; GREY:Digital Target (raw Japanese), Firetripper (English Fan-Sub), & the 1st. Gundam Movie (raw Japanese).]
The UK's fist Anime club run by fans, Anime Kyo UK did its part, and A.K.N. was Circulated to fan club members of 'Anime Kyo UK' in time to support and promote the event.
[NOTES: A.K.N. – Anime Kyo News (Fan Club zine\fanzine) issue 1 – Advertisement: Anime Day p.5 January 1991 Poster and flyers were sent to me by Paul Davison of Japanime North East to promote 'Anime-Day'.]
[NOTES: A letter dated 12th January 1991, sent from pen-pal Paul Davidson (who I had met at EastCon'90 - April the year before), read (3rd. paragraph); "I've enclosed one off all the Anime Day leaflets for your use (Xerox). I only received them a few days ago and although I know there was a poster with the A.UK newsletter presumably you haven't got the other sheets."
[NOTES: Writing my own editorial on pages 2 & 3 of A.K.N. was just an introduction of myself to fellow Anime Fanclub members, (as I had made them fill in questionnaires, and only thought it fair that I reciprocated), but I wrote nothing about the UP and coming Anime-Day Convection, but giving it ad. space of a FULL page on page 5. Helen McCarthy's own Editorial in AnimeUK newsletters was void of any mention leading up to March the 9th., but no doubt sent a loose sheet\poster with January's newsletter.]
On 9th. March 1991 Anime-Day
Attendee Badge (art by Rick Cowling).
(my badge of Honor)
PHOTOS on the day;
Patlabor scale 1/60 model "AV-98 INGRAM" by Steve Booth.
[NOTES: The JAPAN CENTRE 2's table was emptied in under 2 hours, sorry NO photographs.]
The Convention Book;
As a more personal note, and adding to the flavour of the time, there will be some quotes from my own correspondence from my friends at the time;
[NOTE: As of April 2023, I still need to find my correspondence with Rick Cowling, to see what Anime videos I loaned to Anime-Day.]
*****
Pen-Pals (by post, snail-mail...); Martin J Payne, Jay Felton, Brian Flanagan, and Richard Poffley.
Richard Poffley Wrote on the 25th. of February 1991"I am going to the Anime day and will be motoring up with a couple of the AUK members from this area.""I look forward in seeing you in about 10 days time and meting a few other people that I write to in this country."
Jay Felton Wrote on the 15th of April 1991"Hi there, thanks for your letter of (gulp!) 20th. October. I swear there's a conspiracy going on; every time I try to catch up on mail a load of other hyper-urgent jobs come along and prevent me. I seem to be getting nowhere fast.""I'm sorry I missed you at ANIME-DAY, but somehow I missed spotting your name on the list of attendees until afterwards. Or did you perhaps not make it at all? Another friend of mine, Ray Horseman had the most dreadful luck - he registered and everything, then his friend went and decided to get married on the 9 March so he had to go to the wedding instead." - "I'm also sorry i only managed a short phone call to you that time, I have to be extremely careful with household expenses if I'm ever to have money left for the fun things in life."
[Side NOTES: Jay Felton also wrote also on the 15 April 1991"The Organiser of ALBACON has written asking me to go and run the anime room this year, and with these new Apex train fares to Scotland I should be able to manage it. All I have to do is arrange to get time off work...." "Right now it's hard to get any input for the anime fandom guide, let alone tracking down who has master copies. A guy called Dave Rowe is compiling an anime video database, so he's probably a good person to contact for such detailed information. I'm still organizing my list into the form he wants, so I have not yet written to him.".]
Brian Flanagan Wrote in January of 1991"Well, how are ya!!, are you going to Animeday in Sheffield, if so I hope to see you there, I rang the guys at the space centre today and had a bit of a yap with them, they said they were going to show kiki's delivery service (gotta see it) and some dragonball episodes and various other bits including (cough!) robotech (bleeearh!), but the japan centre from london are going to be there selling stuff, so bring your credit card!!!!!"
Brian Flanagan also wrote post Anime-Day 1991 "HELLO!!sorry about not writing for a while, it was nice to meet you at the con, (shame about the rest of 'em"), how's the 'zine going??""Not got any new stuff recently (and my NTSC player died the day before anime day so I haven't wanted any NTSC tapes yet!) Have you got any new stuff?? I'm awaiting a stack of tapes from the US including a LUM movie and THE VENUS WARS movie amongst others."
Martin J Payne Wrote on 23rd of April 1991"long time, no contact huh? How have you been keeping? Well I hope." "Just dropping you a line to let you know I have got a PANASONIC NV-W1 'World Standard VCR. So of you want ant converting done...prices as follows:2 hours @ £7.003 hours @ £8.504 hours @ £10.00This includes the BLANK TAPE, Secure packing and 1st. class (recorded) postage. Turn around within 21 days."
"P.S. Didn't see you at Anime-Day. Where were you?"P.P.S. How much to join Anime kyo UK?"
[NOTES: As many of us tried to get Anime to watch, the different Television systems of the American and Japanese system of NTSC was a big issue, just having UK machines that played NTSC VHS tape would cost around £800, and at the time that was 2 months wages for a lot of us.]
[NOTES: Companies and individuals that offered services to convert NTSC tapes to the UK's PAL system, were most welcome, and furthered the spread of Anime in the UK (as the cost of £2,000 for a true multistranded machine that could copy\record would be out of reach to most, at a comparable cost of 10 months wages) VHS tapes in the UK had running times of; 60Mins, 180Mins, & 240Mins, were as US VHS were mainly 60mins, or 120Mins (long-play and extended long-play could be done, but quality greatly suffered, to the point of being unwatchable!) - just to highlight that hardware was an issue, much like the Blu-ray players of today.]
[NOTES: And the time restrictions of the process of playing and recording on to NTSC tapes, not counting the added time of editing (stop\start\pause\play\record), may have been a factor in Films and OVAs being more popular the TV series!]
AFTER 9th. March 1991 Anime-Day
(towards the end of April 1991 was AnimeUK issue 5).
Helen McCarthy wrote; "ANIME DAY - Sheffield, march 9th. 1990 [should be 1991], soon after eight a.m. on a grey windy day; we pile out of Rick's dad's car and into the Update Centre. just under four-teen hours later we stagger (due to exhaustion, rather than alcohol) out of the pub and head back. in between was a terrific day. At one point late in the day Rick said worriedly "Nobody's come up and said anything to me all day - do you think that means they aren't enjoying it?" I told him not to worry; they were just too busy enjoying it to stop and talk to the organisers."
"We all enjoy a convention in different ways, so there follow a number of personal views of various bits of the con. There are more comments on the letters page. For me, the best parts of the day were the number of subscribers, penpals and fellow anime-fans I met for the first time, and the tremendous energy and enthusiasm in the Centre from both conrunners and participants."
"Rick and his team did a great job, and Lol Bromehead at Sheffield Space Centre for sponsoring the con and giving so much support, both beforehand and on the day."
"The only complaints I heard were of the hot, claustrophobic video rooms (always a problem with windowless rooms) and the sad wail "with four video programmes running at the same time I'm missing three I want to see all the time!" SIGNED Yours animatedly Helen.
Peter Milligan wrote; "Anyway, down to the serious stuff - Wasn't Anime Day fucking great (you can quote me on that that Brian!) I was especially impressed with the effort taken to purchase NTSC originals from the States, it shows the effort put into the video programme of which I'd barely seen anything before, despite comments to the contrary in the con booklet. But the best part of the day had to be seeing the people you'd heard of or written to, which is great - it shows you what kind of person you've been talking to for the past year or more. So thanks to Rick Cowling, Mick Kline, Darren Ashmore and everyone concerned for a great day. Word of warning: you'd better be there on Anime Day part II!"
Steve Kyte wrote; "At this distance in time, thoughts about ANIME-DAY are a bit jumble - isolated images spring to mind : being met at the bus station by one of the event's organisers, Rick Cowling (easy to spot - he was the only one of the small crowd waiting there to sport a MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM cap!) "
"tables packed with nothing but anime goodies, and watching my fellow punters descend on said tables like a horde of sharks in a feeding frenzy. Quantities of dosh of mobile Suit proportions changed hands that day and many folks (myself included) had large smiles on their faces having AT LAST nabbed some long-lusted-for item of merchandise - though the smiles may have faded a little o the checking the old wallet at the end of the day!"
"The model display was superb and included much gnashing and grinding of teeth and mutterings of "" how the fuck did he do that!?!"" Seeing beautifully made and painted versions of kits I have sitting in their boxes at home induced a strange mixture of feelings: at one and the same time I felt both hugely inspired and crushingly depressed, though this didn't stop me spending a good proportion of the day ogling these little works of art. (Sorry about the drool, fellas, but it should wipe off OK.)"
"Of the programme I can say little, since I didn't actually get to see ANY of it (with the exception of Helen's well attended talk - and that only because I was changing the tapes illustrating it!) However, the choice of material seemed reasonably balanced to me, though TV episodes were thin on the ground in favour of movies and OVAs. Understandable I suppose, since they are obviously more self-contained storywise. Try watching episode #28 of a 59 episode series on its own and see how much sense you can make of the story!"
"Sadly, unless you had your clones present, you ended up missing two programme items for every one you saw, but better too much to choose from than too little, I'd say. Of course there will be plenty of time to show everyone's favourites in the future since Anime-Day will be a regular event from now on. (WILL be a regular event, won't it guys? Think before you answer and bear in mind what that shark-like horde of anime fans could do to the frail human body!) It would be nice to see Anime-Day inspire similar events in other parts of the country, wouldn't it?"
"The event I enjoyed most? The action, without a doubt. perhaps its timing (near the end of the day) wasn't too good: most people had exhausted their cash by then, so I don't suppose it did as well as hoped for financially."
"However, the atmosphere was great fun, with a tired but happy crowd indulging in much amiale gibing, cat-calling and other forms of ""audience participation"".
"The overall impression left by Anime-Day was of hordes of starving people let loose in a bakery full of the most wonderful sticky, sinful cakes, and O-Ding on them with glee! Thanks and congratulations to al involved in organising the bash, and especially to Rick and family for their friendly hospitality..oh, and next time make it a whole weekend eh fellas.... or we'll send C-Ko round to sing at you!!"
Brian Flanagan Wrote; "Anime Day was a good laugh, saw loadsa good stuff (Prefectural Earth Defence was definitely the highlight!) and said yo to loadsa people, nice to meet you [Helen] & Steve as well."
Jonathan Weeks Wrote; "I have to admit than ANIME DAY left me reeling somewhat. As someone who's just discovered anime, it was great to discover there are plenty of others sharing my interest, but it's a hell of a lot to take in, in one day!" - "The problem of providing information to newcomers without boring everyone else is a tricky one, especially with anime, since beginners are going to be especially disadvantaged. It may be a good idea to compile a special 'beginners' guide to anime', perhaps in the same format as AUK, which could provide all the basic information needed without using up valuable space in the newsletter." - "One source of information on anime I haven't seen mentioned yet are the various archives held on the Internet computer network in the US. All sorts of information is kept on these, mainly scripts and synopses of various anime, and even issues of Anime stuff, an electronic magazine."
"Anyone with access to the JANET network in the UK can access Internet using FTP via the University of London systems, which have a relay node connecting the two networks. It's quite a complicated procedure though, so it's best if anyone interested contact me via e-mail (WEEKSJHatUK.ASTON.SPOCK) and I'll pass on what you need to know to access it, as well as a list of Internet nodes with Anime files."
[NOTES: FTP = a COMPUTER File Transfer Protocol for uploading and downloading data\files across networked computers, remember this would have been done at Dial-up phone speeds of the time!]
Ms. Jay Felton wrote the following report; "It is several years since I began attending conventions, and just about as long since I arose at some ungodly hour to travel to one on a Saturday morning rather than a Friday night. So leaving the house at 6.00a.m. on 9 April 1991 without so much as eating breakfast was nostalgic as well as a shock to my system! The first train to Sheffield safely caught, I then had an unexpected but exciting encounter with a man - no, not that kind of encounter! But when someone introduces himself to you as a marketing exec. hoping to get anime translated and imported for British video market and proceeds to ask you which shows would be well received, well I call that exciting. Apart from another guy on the train mistaking me for Helen McCarthy (as did the marketing exec. for that matter - what do I say about this without upsetting her, hmm?) I arrived relatively unperturbed."
"The slightly unusual venue of ANIME-DAY, a University centre, was soon proved a good choice as facilities numbered one large hall plus 4, yes 4, smaller video rooms. said main hall held a small but promising range of displayed fan art and models, a gaming area, dealers' tables and a welcome 'Lounge' corner with chairs and coffee tables."
"With a quick scan of the video programme I decided to postpone attempts to plan my day's activities until I'd watched the episode of ZILLION which had just started. This, a show I'd been interested in seeing for quite some time, did not disappoint; despite it being in American translation the dialogue seemed reasonable nearly all the way through and the visuals of course were just as good as I'd gathered from the stills and friends' reports."
"Next I had a general look around at what else was going on, and a chance to meet various friends, penfriends and even a friend of a penfriend. Closer investigation of the art and model show revealed a few excellent pieces; rather inevitably, most of the models were kit-made mecha, but one or two of these showed imaginative use of scenery. I particularly liked the one which was stomping a Matchbox racing car to bits! Also very memorable was a small-scale version of Shin Kanzaki's Tiger plane from AREA 88, complete with tiny road cones to mark out its parking space. The graphic art included one or two stomach-turning gory places but at the other end of the range were some lovely detailed mecha and character portraits, including a set of exquisite pencil sketches of Nausiccaa. Apart from voting on their favourite exhibits, attendees were encouraged to participate in 'identify the giant robot' and identify the girl's silhouette' contests, but Kei was the only one I could recognise - most giant robots still look alike to me, and why wasn't there a 'identify the hunk's silhouette' competition as well? I could have done that! Not fair!! I did book, anyway - and incidentally the con book itself was a worthy souvenir, both informative and entertainingly written."
"While the planned NAUSICCAA role-playing game apparently drew no support at all, the PATLABOR 'board' - a citscape, of course, with model buildings and authentic mecha playing pieces, had a steady knot [LOT] of players around it for most of the day. Meanwhile the Sheffield Space Centre (home of the con organisers) naturally had a well-stocked sales table; the other dealer's table spent most of the day empty, labelled 'Japan Centre', but they were in attendance so briefly (arrived at lunchtime and were gone 2 1/2 hours later when 'My Youth in Arcadia' had finished) I had little chance to see what they were selling. Besides the four impressive, almost non-stop video programmes, the main events of the day were the charity auction and a talk by Helen McCarthy (who was at times happily ensconced next to the dealer's tables sinning up new subscribers to ANIME UK newsletter) to introduce newer fans to the wide variety of anime available. As for the attendees, I was interested but not really surprised to see no costumes being worn, but a decorative selection of anime and manga related teeshirts and badges was in evidence. The con had clearly succeeded in drawing the support required: the venue was neother overcrowded nor the reverse, simply a healthy number of people milling around the main hall, descending vulture-like on the sales tables, discussing their favourites (the marketing exec. could be seen now and then quizzing someone else for his popularity poll) or simply trotting from one vied item to the next. On one slightly depressing note, mt impression of British anime fandom as heavilly gender-biased was confirmed by the presence of only a handful of other females."
"Very few cons (or indeed anything else) run completely smoothly; and I must mention ANIME-DAY's share of technical difficulties if only because the guys coped with them so heroically. Serious rescheduling of videos was needed - and swiftly achieved - when some of the hired VCRs proved to play standard speed only (a problem I suffered myself the first time I showed anime at a con) but evidently enough 'backup programming' was on hand to resolve the difficulties.
[NOTES: VCRs is short for Video Cassette Recorder, the large machines that played and recorded on magnetic VHS tape, about the size of a desktop computer.]
"Apart from one brief panic when I thought I'd missed the SAINT SEIYA move - I didn't, thanks to a helpful guy who, seeing my distress, informed me it had in fact only just started - I personally suffered no real disappointments, other then that of not being able to be in two or three places at once."
"I have to commend the con staff's dedication in obtaining so many decently translated or subtitled recordings for this occasion. The language barrier can limit enjoyment of some material, unless of course you adopt the 'make up your own plot and dialogue' method! As it was I watched and understood properly besides ZILLION, a subtitled episode of GUNBUSTER (high school girls being trained to pilot lethal mecha, for no immediately obvious reason but it's great fun, typically Japanese with its 'try your best and you'll succeed' philosophy) and PREFCTURAL DEFENSE FORCE, also subtitled so at last I got all the crazy jokes in this hysterical spoof of 'teenage heroes battle villain bent on World domination'. The most essential item on my viewing schedule, 'My Youth in Acadia', which I've been trying and failing to see for years for some reasons too complicated to mention, was also subtitled and totally fulfilled my high expectations.
The translation caught the feel and mood of this epic perfectly and after sitting spellbound for over two hors, I left the room quite drained by the power and emotion of the experience. This (plus the instant lack of space in the room at starting time) caused me reluctantly to pass on EDEN PROJECT, which in any case I felt would have destroyed the atmosphere of the good Captain's story."
"Instead I took time to wind down before seeking out the Bronze saints as light entertainment in the second SAINT SEIYA movie, my other Must Not Miss viewing for the day. This did disappoint me slightly compared to the first and third films, as not only is the same basic plot used for all three, but in this variation on the theme I found too many irritating holes of the 'wait a minute, wasn't he tied up/dying/possessed last time we saw him?' variety. Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable piece of pretty violence, with all the cliches I know and love."
"Just as my energy levels were fading, the proceedings wound down early in the evening. I gather about 120 - 130 people attended altogether, which is most encouraging for the first time con. I also gather that, in the best convention tradition, the committee are already planning next year's event - and I'm looking forward to it!"
Martin J. Payne's report is as follows; "Overall I had a great day (my first con) but it's a pity it wasn't longer. My only complaints concerned the video rooms.
1) The seating arrangement was terrible – especially for subtitled films, where large proportions of writing were blanked out by people's heads.
2) There were too many video rooms, so I missed a lot of what I wanted.
Therefore my proposals for next year:
(a) Make it a full three day con (or four – maybe Easter Weekend?)
(b) Halve the number of video rooms – two would be ample for a longer con.
(c)Try to get more fan interaction in the main area – more RPGs and TV games, etc.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to next year – hope to see you then.
C'mon, let's have an anime con down here in the South of England. An 8 hour coach journey to Sheffield really pissed me off!"
[ED's COMMENTS: (Helen McCarthy) Most of the complaints I've heard mention those two subjects, Video room layouts and simultaneous showings, and only those two subjects – so it looks like we all think Rick & Co. got just about everything else right! I certainly had a great day and look forward to ANIME DAY 2, which I understand is to be run by Ol' RoboDaz himself Darren Ashmore. As for a Southern anime con, yes, it's always a possibility – given a committee to run it and enough support. I don't think there's enough of an “anime community” yet to support a 3 or 4-day con – these have an average budget running into thousands and staffs of well over a hundred, apart from which there are already two major cons over Easter, and big cons over the bank holidays; but a one-day con is within the realms of possibility. So let's see how we'd get on – if you'd be willing to help organise and run a one-day anime con, write and let me know how much work you'd be prepared to do and what sort of help you think you could give, either on the day or beforehand; if you'd be willing to attend let me know how much you'd be willing to pay (average registration fee for one day events is about £10, but given the expense of venues it might realistically have to be higher for a con in London). And would you lend your equipment and tapes, bring artwork and models?
Write and say yes or no, and let's see what support there is.]
[NOTES: ANIMEUK – Newsletter (newsletter\fanzine) issue 5 – Article: REPORTING ON Anime Day page 12, by; Helen McCarthy, Peter Milligan, Steve Kyte, & page 13, by Jay Felton, and Martin J. Payne, with some feedback from the Editor. April 1991.]
[NOTES: Anime!: Beginner's Guide to Japanese Animation (Paperback) – was published in 1993 distributed by Titan Books Ltd ISBN-10 : 1852864923 ISBN-13 : 978-1852864927 (1st. September 1993, but PRESS release states publication date; 25th. November 1993 RRP £6.99.]
"One source of information on anime I haven't seen mentioned yet are the various archives held on the Internet computer network in the US. All sorts of information is kept on these, mainly scripts and synopses of various anime, and even issues of Anime stuff, an electronic magazine. "
"Anyone with access to the JANET network in the UK can access Internet using FTP via the University of London systems, which have a relay node connecting the two networks. It's quite a complicated procedure though, so it's best if anyone interested contact me via e-mail (WEEKSJHatUK.ASTON.SPOCK) and I'll pass on what you need to know to access it, as well as a list of Internet nodes with Anime files."
(towards the beginning of June 1991 was A.K.N. issue 2).
[NOTES: A.K.N. – Anime Kyo News (Fan Club zine\fanzine) issue 2 – Editorial: Ramblings of an Editor, page 2. June 1991 Carlo Bernhardi.]
*****
30 YEARS AFTER 9th. March 1991 Anime-Day
The Editor of NEO Magazine, Gemma Cox wrote;
"WELCOME TO Issue 206 of NEO! There's a hint of nostalgia in the air this month, thanks to our incredible peek back into anime fandom history over on page 060. Carlo Bernhardi talks us through the very first dedicated anime convention to take place in Britain on the 30th anniversary of the occasion, and it's a fascinating read! From treks to hunt down dedicated equipment to play imported VHS tapes, to scale models and spirited pub debates, the story of Anime Day '91 is really the story of early fandom in these isles. 30 years ago, these fans were putting together a template that has been followed for decades across the UK, by people united in their love for anime and manga. If you're an older fan like me, you'll remember some of the details like signing up to fanzines to check up on the latest titles, and battling with VHS formats and later American and Japanese DVD players just to get your fix. If you're a whippersnaper you can just read and thank the anime gods that fans like Bernhardi and the rest paved the way for you to have scores of shops, events, conventions and websites at your disposal to fulfill your every whim. You lucky ducks! Of course, as the pandemic across the globe continues, fan events like these are a distant memory for everyone. But as we look forward to restrictions lifting. It's good to be reminded of what awaits us; conventions, fellow fans, and friends."
Carlo Bernhardi, wrote for NEO Magazine published in March 2022;
" “A group of local fans with help and support from the Sheffield Space Centre are organising a one-day convention in Sheffield on Saturday 9th. March 1991, which will cover the incredible range of Japanese comics and animation on the market at the moment. It will include art and model displays and video shows of Japanese animation.”
- From the British magazine Fantazia in February 1991, under the heading “Turning Japanese.”
To many Neo readers, the pre-online age must look something like the Stone Age. But 1991 was a good year for the prehistoric anime fans in Britain. True, there wasn’t a UK anime industry yet. This was a year before Manga Entertainment, the first specialist anime label, would come into being. DVDs, social media and YouTube were all years away.
Early anime fans relied on specialist comic book shops, with their fascinating comic book imports, containing letters pages and pen-pals lists that offered the chance to network. We also devoured the information in particular magazines, such as Speakeasy (which covered comics, film and video), Starburst and Fantazia. In a way, all of this constituted the Internet for the fans of the time. But even the specialist shops and media treated manga imports as a tiny niche, and only a few people knew the word “anime."
But something changed early in 1991. From January 25, a little film called AKIRA began to play in London’s ICA cinema. From late February, it started being played in cinemas outside London, though on a very limited release. It was the kind of film that you had to catch at your nearest “arthouse” cinema, where it might play for only a couple of days before it was gone.
For me, something else happened in early January, before Akira had even opened in London. I received an envelope from a pen-pal who I had met the previous year at EastCon'90 (see boxout). He was running the 'Japanime North East' fan group in Tyne and Wear. The envelope contained an A4 flyer\poster for an upcoming event called Anime Day in Sheffield.
This would be Britain's first dedicated anime event, something more than a fringe video room at a British science fiction convention. It was my job to Xerox the poster and spread the word about this one day mini-con, which would take place on 9 March. A copy of the Anime Day poster appeared in issue one of Anime Kyo News, my own “newszine” for my anime club.
“The idea for Anime Day came about from the frustration of local fans not meeting enough people of like mind, not being able to see Japanese animation and trying to answer the question, ARE WE ALONE?”
That’s a line from Anime Day’s CONbook, written by one of the event’s committee organisers, Dave Bromehead. He was, and is, the owner of the Sheffield Space Centre, one of Britain’s oldest SF, fantasy and comic shops. Dave knew there were anime fans in Britain, people who’d get together at someone’s house, and watch whatever anime they had on videotape. But surely there could be a better way for them to meet.
This led to talks between various people, including Dave, the Japanime North East group, and the followers of a fan newsletter called Anime UK, which had sixty subscribers in the February of 1991. Anime Day was the result. Apart from Dave, the event’s committee members were Rick Cowling (who was the chairman), Lawrence Stuart and Darren Ashmore. Ashmore is now a Professor and anthropologist in Japan, but back then we knew him as “Robo-Daz.”
The resulting event took place in a building called the Update Centre. It was owned by the University of Sheffield; back then, the building was part of its Outreach and Adult Learning programme, and was open for rent by anyone. There was a main hall which had displays of fan art and models, a gaming area, dealers’ tables and – essential for any good con socialising – a “lounge” corner with chairs and coffee tables.
The dealers included the Sheffield Space Centre and the Japan Centre from London. For the Japan Centre people, it was just a flying visit – they were only there for about two hours, and they must have spent most of the day travelling.
Seventy-two people had registered before the Con booklet went to press. That looks like a tiny number by today’s standards, but believe me, it felt like a massive number of people to be interested in anime in Britain in 1991. Dave remembers that about a hundred people were there on the day.
“I remember us arriving at the venue very early to set up,” Dave said. “I was surprised to find a few people already waiting outside our venue. They were quickly and willingly roped in to help us set up. We had TVs, video projectors, sales tables, microphones and a biggish game table to get ready before most attendees arrived. One of my main memories was how enthusiastic and friendly to each other everyone was. We all seemed to have found other like-minded souls.”
There was no Masquerade at the event, but there was plenty of light-hearted, paper-based fun to be had by the prehistoric anime fans. There was an anime trivia quiz with fifty questions. I remember one question I got right – What makes the Valkyries in the Macross movie different from the TV versions? Answer – the shape of their fingers.
There was also a charity auction, and the chance to play an anime board game. “Patlabor Crime Wave” was a 1/60 scale game featuring a guest Gundam model (scale appropriate). There was also a plan to do an RPG game based on Miyazaki’s Nausicaa, but sadly that didn’t get enough take-ups. Darren Ashmore, who had organised it, didn’t mind – he got to play the Patlabor game and talk with more people.
And talking with people was one of the things that the convention was all about. For many attendees, there was the buzz of participating with people who you knew as pen-pals, but who you’d never met in person. People came from far and wide – one person even made an eight-hour journey to Sheffield by coach. Even in 1991, fandom was serious.
One of the Anime Day attendees was Jay Felton, a big player in British fandom generally, who’s tragically no longer with us. She didn’t see anyone in anime costumes, but rather “a decorative selection of anime and manga-related T-shirts and badges.” I myself wore a T-shirt for Grey: Digital Target; so did at least two other fans. There were also Akira T-shirts around, imported from Streamline, and imported manga shirts. These came from the “Advanced Comics” catalogue or from Kimono My House, a Californian shop that specialised in “Japanese Anime and Sci Fi Toys.”
Another attendee, the artist Steve Kyte, wrote in Anime UK of “tables packed with nothing but anime goodies, and watching my fellow punters descend on said tables like a horde of sharks in a feeding frenzy… Many folks (myself included) had large smiles on their faces having at last nabbed some long-lusted-for item of merchandise. The model display was superb and induced much gnashing and grinding of teeth and mutterings of ‘How the **** did he do that!?!’
As Jay noted, the event was heavily male-slanted. Gender parity in British anime fandom wouldn’t come (more or less) until the late 2000s. There were, Jay said, “only a handful of other females” at the event, including Helen McCarthy, who delivered a one-hour talk on the day.
In the Anime UK newsletter, Helen herself commented on the event. “For me, the best parts of the day were the number of subscribers, penpals and fellow anime-fans I met for the first time, and the tremendous energy and enthusiasm in the Centre from both the conrunners and participants… (The) only complaints I heard were of the hot, claustrophobic video rooms (always a problem with windowless rooms).”
Ah yes, those video rooms. Back in 1991, it was a huge deal just being able to see anime, before it was available in the UK. For attendees, it was immensely hard having to choose which of the four video rooms to go to, as we were painfully aware we were missing was what on in the other three!
Fan-favourite titles among the screenings included the centuries-spanning movie Arcadia of my Youth, set in the universe of Leiji Matsumoto, and Prefectural Earth Defence Force, a crazy comedy OAV parodying all the anime tropes of the time.
Our overwhelming desire to see anime was so great that seeing them in any form was fine. There were fansubs. There was a French dub of a Dragon Ball movie. Titles such as Castle of Cagliostro, Grey and episodes of Zeta Gundam and Ranma 1/2 were shown in "raw," unsubtitled Japanese. It was a time when lengthy anime text synopses were crucial in anime fandom, to help you understand what the hell was going on.
To offset the unsubbed and fansubbed screenings, we had newly licensed subtitled VHS tapes from America. From U.S. Renditions, we had Gunbuster and the first part of Dangaioh. From AnimEigo we had the stand-alone OVAs MADOX-01, and Kenichi Sonoda's Riding Bean.
Jay recalled there were technical difficulties with some of the videos. However, she said, “The guys coped with them so heroically… Enough ‘backup programming’ was on hand to resolve the difficulties,” Jay said.
Like many conventions, the event carried on “after hours” in a nearby pub, the Frog & Parrot where Helen and Rick had a lively debate. “The day seemed to end so quickly with everyone asking when the next Anime Day would be,” Dave remembers. As it turned out, that would be exactly a year later, in March 1992. This time it would last two days, and include a Masquerade.
March 1992 was also the month Manga Video (later Manga Entertainment) was born, Britain’s first specialist anime label. The Anime UK newsletter had already spun off a magazine under the same name, and British fandom was evolving fast.
Today – well, not quite today, but once Covid lockdowns are history – there are umpteen fan events around the country, drawing hundreds or thousands of attendees. But Day One of anime fandom will always be unique for the fans who were there. Dave remembers it fondly. “For me, and I think most of the other attendees, Anime Day will always be very special. Many firm and long-lasting friendships and connections were made on that day.”
Looking at my own write-up from thirty years ago, I see that I wrote, “What a hectic day, fans trying to be in four places at once just so they could see all the anime. But all in all, a great day was had by all who were there. I look forward to ‘Anime Day 2.’”
//Boxout 1/
THE SEED OF EASTCON’90
EastCon’90 was the 1990 edition of Eastercon, Britain’s national science-fiction convention. That year, it took place in Liverpool. This was definitely not an anime event, but Helen McCarthy was able to commandeer some rooms to screen unsubtitled anime – more than thirty hours of it! Among the cornucopia of titles shown were Gundam, Macross, Lupin and Space Cobra… and if you were watching late at night, you might see Violence Jack and Overfiend.
The event led to some fans meeting and networking, myself included, and the start of the Anime UK newsletter, planting important seeds for Anime Day a year later. Anime fans opened their front rooms; they met in village halls; and they created local and national clubs, and fanzines. This was well before any UK University society took an interest in anime.
//Boxout 2//
PREHISTORIC VIDEO
A word on the video equipment is necessary. In this digital prehistory of Analogue TV systems, there were main three formats: NTSC for Japan and America, PAL for the United Kingdom, and SECAM for France! Most anime would be on NTSC VHS either from Japan or America, and these tapes would not play on UK video recorders (VCRs). To make matters worse, some televisions would refuse to play NTSC tapes as well.
VCRs that had NTSC playback cost about a month’s wages. I myself had to travel all the way from Sheffield to central London to buy a machine in Tottenham Court Road. Loaning machines between anime fans was a friendly thing to do, but it was also serious!
//BOXOUT 3//
THE VIDEO PROGRAMME
What would you have seen in the video room at Anime Day back in 1991? Here’s the full list of what was scheduled to be on, though as the main text notes, there were some emergency substitutions on the day, including Venus Wars – the manga was popular among fans of the time – and Rimiko Takahashi’s Fire Tripper.
ROOM ONE
Gundam 0080 War in the pocket episode 6 (Raw Japanese)
Dragonball movie (French Dub)
Gunbuster (US Renditions, subtitled)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (Fansub)
Riding Bean (Animeigo, subtitled)
Maddox-01 (Animeigo, subtitled)
Saint Seya Movie II (Raw Japanese)
Grey: Digital target (Raw Japanese)
ROOM TWO
Zillion (English dub)
Dangaioh (US Renditions, subtitled)
Zeta Gundam episode (Raw Japanese)
Dominion Tank Police (Raw Japanese)
Megazone 23 PART 3 (part A) (Raw Japanese)
Castle of Cagliostro (Raw Japanese)
Akira (English dub)
Ranma ½ episode (Raw Japanese)
ROOM THREE
Mujigen Hunter Fandora (Fansub)
Robotech episode (English dub)
Five Star Stories (Raw Japanese)
Project A-KO (Fansub)
My Youth in Arcadia (Raw Japanese)
Dirty Pair: Eden Project (Fansub)
Prefectural Earth Defence School (Fansub)
SD Gundam (Raw Japanese)
ROOM FOUR
Yotoden (Raw Japanese)
Patlabor episode (Raw Japanese)
Macross: Do You Remember Love? English dub
60-minute Live Lecture by Helen McCarthy
Black Magic M-66 (Fansub)
My Neighbour Totoro (Fan-Subtitled)
Mobile Suit Gundam – Char's Counterattack (Raw Japanese) "
[NOTES: Cox, Gemma (March 2022), NEO Magazine (206 ed.), United kingdom: Uncooked Media, p. 006.]
[NOTES: NEO (magazine) issue 206 – Article: 30 Years of Anime Conventions: ANIME FANDOM BEGINS. p.060 – p.063 March 2022 Carlo Bernhardi. Proof reading by Andrew Osmond.]
[NOTE: March 2022 would see the 30th. Anniversary of 'ANIME DAY 2' (0092 Con in the pocket)]
Saturday 7th. and Sunday 8th. March 1992.
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