November 1990 Pt.1 Newtype Magazine

'Newtype'  - the moving pictures magazine'. Published monthly by Kadokawa Shoten. Consisting of 188 pages (including front & back covers), #11 November 1990. 490 Yen.

Again what I have uploaded is a small percentage of November's Newtype magazine, so as to compare it with other Japanese Animation magazines of that month or year, to see its variety, and the Ads. too.  Gundam (F91) and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, were very prominent. 

 Seabook Arno from Gundam F91.

It's the Contents page,
The Hakkenden (The Legend of the Dog Warriors)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.

 Gundam F91.

 Gundam F91.

 Gundam F91.

Gaia Gear
written by Yoshiyuki Tomino
and
mechanical design by Ito Mamoru

?, Mashin Hero Wataru 2, Patlabor
?

Ad. for Record of Lodoss war,
Ad. for SD Gundam.

Sherlock Hound,
Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors)
?, NG Knight Lamune & 40
?,?

Music LPs,
Mado King Grandzort.

Five Star Stories,
Ad. for Earthian II,?,?,
Ad. for Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, ?

'The Five Star Stories' by  Mamoru Nagano.

'The Five Star Stories' by  Mamoru Nagano.

SFX TOUR 14 December 1990 in the USA.
 [The Guyver with the movie Studio Shochiku's SFXs] 

Fashionable judo girl Yawara.

Patlabor.

'Watashi No Ashinaga Ojisan'  (My Daddy Long Legs).

Magical Taluluto.

Utsunomiko.

?
'Iczer 3' and 'Gall Force 3'.

THUNDERBIRDS,
Galaxy Express 999,
?

Dark Angel by Kia Asamiya
3D Modeling Techniques.

Dark Angel by Kia Asamiya

?
TOKYO Animator College.

'Marionette Generation' by Haruhiko Mikimoto.

'Marionette Generation' by Haruhiko Mikimoto.

 Gundam F91.

Gundam F91. 

 Gundam F91.

 Gundam F91.

Gaia Gear
written by Yoshiyuki Tomino
and
mechanical design by Ito Mamoru

December's NEWTYPE.

Licca: the Mystery Tale of Mysterious Yunia. (OVA)
[this looks to be this show:-  Licca-chan Fushigi na Fushigi na Yunia Monogatari.]

B.B. 2 (short for "Burning Blood"),
and 'Blues Brothers', and Anne of Green Gables.
NEW VIDEO.

MODEL news and Newtype. (mostly from "Five Star Stories".
TIN TOY CLUB.

HOW TO ART.
and
Will Vinton's Claymation.

Ad. for Maison ikkoku CDs  (with Kyoko on the cover).

?

COMPUTER
(Console games, 3 PC Engine games, and 1 megadrive game? )
and
Super Robot from the 70's.

VCRs
TOKYO Animator College.
[Sorry, not so good photo.]

Ad. for LD (Laser Disks) from Victor\JVC;
Licca,
The Hakkenden,
Karasu Tengu Kabuto (by Buichi Terasawa),
Record of Lodoss war.
and
Violence Jack - Hell's Wind.

?
?

FUJIMI FANTASIA Series.
Ad. for Romance and adult anime produced by "Fairy Dust" 

Ad. for DRAGON Magazine.
and
Karura Mau (OAV) KARULA?

?

Newtype ART GALLERY

Yoyogi Animation Academy
?

Ad.  for Hanna Barbera shows (from the 90's),
Arabian Knights,
Wacky Races,
Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines ("Stop That Pigeon")

[Animation from the 60's and 70's does get a VHS or Laser Disk release from time to time.]

October 1990 Pt. 9 Manga round-up

October's Manga overview and round-up.

We still had quite a few on-going Manga comic-books and Anime based comic-books that could be still found “On the racks” in October of 1990, such as:-

#25\26 of 'AKIRA' (1-38)

 from Epic Comics.

#39 of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' (1-40)

from First comics,

#22 of Outlanders. (1-33)

from Dark Horse Comics.

#4 Black Magic (1 – 4)

#1 Lost Continent (1-6)

from Eclipse Comics

#9 of COBRA (1-12)

#3 of Crying Freeman: Part Two (1-9)

#8 of HOROBI: Part One (1-8)

#4 of 2001 Nights (1 – 10)

from Viz Comics.

Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels:

Hotel Harbour View (GN) 
– a one off \stand-a-lone printing

Crying Freeman
 – Portrait of a killer Vol 1. (GN)

NON-Manga:

[Note: You still had comics inspired by Anime & manga]

#4 of Lensman: Galactic Patrol

#11 of 'Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock',

#16 of 'Robotech II – The Sentinels Book One'

from Eternity Comics.

 #4 Dirty Pair III

from Eclipse Comics

Dirty Pair Book 3 – A plague of Angels (GN) 
-Adam Warren & Toren Smith  
from Eclipse Comics.

[NOTE: all images are taken from my own manga collection, that is still ongoing.]

[NOTE: it is quite difficult to date AKIRA by month, as each issue only has the Year, and finding other reliable sources to cross reference is very hard.]

October 1990 Pt. 8b Manga

Hotel Harbour View (GN)

Story by Natsuo Sekikawa, Illustrated by Jiroh Taniguchi (96 pages, b&w, vinyl slip-cover, $9.95 USA/$14.25 CAN ISBN 0-020279-40-9) VIZ Spectrum Edition published in 1990 - Translation by Gerard Jones & Matt Thorn – First published by Futabasha Inc. Japan

{This title is intended for mature readers and will sometimes contain adult situations and strong language.}

 The cover art from VIZ's 1990 printing.

This Crime genre blends French new wave, and film noir of the forties and fifties, as well as detective fiction, and, Japanese Yakuza films of the 1960's

Springing from this is a new philosophical depiction of death in this gritty underworld of femme-fatales and their targets, in a mundane line of work that knowingly will not end well for those engaged to organised crime. The portrayal both in story and in art flow together, drawing the reader in to this world.

When the pivotal action takes place the inclination is of an assassination dual, both parties are caught in the moment for in those vital seconds, in remembrance of facing death in the eye, a desire to honour the Gunslinger of the old Wild-West, that movies portrayed if only for a heartbeat.  

 a thin transparency over the title. 

An example of Jiroh Taniguchi's artwork. 

 An example of Jiroh Taniguchi's artwork. 

 An example of Jiroh Taniguchi's artwork. 

 An example of Jiroh Taniguchi's artwork. 

The back cover.

[NOTE: before the penultimate pages, we have a two page article entitled DEATH CHECKS IN TO THE HOTEL HARBOUR VIEW. Written by Fred Burke. Fred Burke's work at the time of printing with VIZ was to include, co-translations of; Xenon, Fist of the North Star, Boah, and 2001 Nights.]

[NOTE: on the last page were the creators profiles; “Viz Communications is honoring the request from Mr. Dekikawa that his profile not be included in this book”.]

[NOTE: Jiroh Taniguchi's profile is as follows; Jiroh Taniguchi was born in 1947 in Tottori, Japan. After his high school graduation, he became an assistant to a professional comic artist, Kyota Ishikawa, in 1966. In 1976 he met Natsuo Sekikawa and together they created Unprotected City and Rindra, two unique series that engendered a new style in Japanese comics storytelling.

His other major works include Trouble is My Business, a hard-boiled detective comic with a touch of humor; and The Aga of Bocchan: Part 1 & Part 2, a compilation of biographies of Japanese literary greats from the turn of the century. Both these stories were written by Sekikawa, though Taniguchi has writing credits himself.

Blanca is the story of a a bionic super-dog escaping from Russia and travelling across Alaska and Canada.]

[NOTE: as a collector of translated (in to English) manga from the late 80's to mid 90's, this one-off example of crime genre has taken me 29 years to finally add it to my collection (18^th. July 2020), and is well worth the effort to locate it, ]

October 1990 Pt. 8a Manga

 Lost Continent.  Written and illustrated by Akihiro Yamada. Eclipse International , published in a monthly format for a total of 1 - 6 issues, from October 1990 to April 1991, English adaptation (Studio Proteus) Translated by Alan Gleason and Toren Smith ; lettered and retouched by Tom Orzechowski ; edited by Greg S. Baisden.  Originally published as 'The Last Continent' copyright 1990 Akihiro Yamada and Tokyo Sanseisha.

From issue 1.

I am only guessing here, but when it comes to style and art, many of Akihiro Yamada's panels look as thou they have had the help of Edge Detection software, either Prewitt, or Sobel (a common filter\effect found, that you can apply to scanned photographs), possibly running on a Silicon Graphics (SGI) Visual Workstation (I think at the time it may have been either a IRIS Power Series or a Professional IRIS series computer, as that would fit the bill for the early late 80's, early 90's)

This actually helps with the 1950's style and look that the story flows through.

It all starts with the discovery of an abandoned Sea-plane, a year after its Polar Expedition, a newspaper reporter, and a mysterious woman... Find it and read on...!

From issue 1.

From issue 1.

From issue 1.

From issue 2.

From issue 3.

From issue 4

From issue 5.

From issue 6.

[NOTE: Nobu Shirase (a army reserve lieutenant) privately funded the first expedition by a non-European nation to the Antarctic 1910–12 (Antarctic, the South Pole); Japan commenced its scientific activities in Antarctica in 1956, which was marked by the voyage of “Soya” with the 1st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) on board. Shirase Glacier 1957–62 and Shirase Coast 1961 - thus two subsequent Japanese icebreakers were named Shirase In 1990 'The Shirase Antarctic Expedition Memorial Museum' was opened in Nikaho, Akita Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan.]

[NOTE: The author Jules Verne had written about a 'Hollow Earth' in his 1864 novel 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth', and other fictional writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs were writing from 1914\1922 with 'At the Earth's Core' the first of his set of seven novels located in the land of Pellucidar, the last novel being 'Savage Pellucidar' printed in 1963.]

[NOTE: The 1942 horror film produced for RKO by Val Lewton, with the French director Jacques Tourneur 'CAT PEOPLE', may have been an inspiration to the manga, but that is conjecture on my part.]

From issue 1.

Ad. taken from Mangajin.

[No more details have come to light regarding its serialised Japanese publication origins.]

October 1990 Pt.7 AnimeUK Newsletter

AnimeUK Newsletter.

AnimeUK Newsletter, Consisting of 16 pages, #2 October 1990. Editor: Helen McCarthy.  And was available by subscription only, photocopied and mailed to subscribers on a bi-monthly basis (6 per 12 months). Subscription rates were to be: UK £6, Europe £8, USA £10, Australasia £12, Asia £12. This is the start of print run October Volume 1 Issue 2 of 1990, and over a year later the issue published was Volume 2 Issue 6 October 1992 (the last issue I have).

What next arrived in October by post was “AnimeUK” the Newsletter of the UK's fledgling Anime Fandom, with its welcoming greeting of “Konnichiwa!” 

This newsletter was in response to the Questionnaire that went out with the proto “AnimeUK” Newsletter\Post Easter Con anime report, that was sent to 27 recipients, it was Helen's thought to ensure a wider circulation of Anime and easier contact between fans, would be to do a newsletter and fanzine which would at least provide a point of contact to start with.

There maybe surviving questionnaires in someone's attic?

Looking for News, Views and Reviews.

Contributors to this issue;

AnimeUK Logo and Footer by Graham Bleathman

[NOTE: “I did the logo for both the b/w newsletter and the colour magazine that followed.” says Graham.]

Art contributions by;

Peter Evans (page 4, & page 9)

Dean Heathcote (page 1, 12, & page 15)

Steve Kyte (page 6, & page 16)

News, Views and Reviews by;

Helen McCarthy (page 2, page 3 & half of page 4)

David Row (page 5)

Helen McCarthy (pages 6 & 7)

Richard Poffley (page 8 & 9)

Carlo Bernhardi (page 10 & 11)

Dean Heathcote (page 12)

Jim Swallow (page 13)

Jay Felton (page 14 & 15)

Peter Milligan (page 16)

ConFiction – THE WORLDCON REPORT. By Helen McCarthy (pages 2-4)

Helen's convention report covered the location and costs, and information on the number of attendees, including how her short Anime programme was received, and the Anime panel that Steve Kyte, and the honored guest Mr. Osaku attended, as well as the now obligatory account of the 'Dealer's room'.

“ ConFiction, The 48^th World Science Fiction Convention, was held in the Nederlandse Congresgebouw, Den Haag, The Netherlands from 23^rd -27^th August 1990.” “With less then 3,000 attending members it was one of the most thinly attended Worldcons of recent years and, in Particular, many of the registered American attending members didn't show.”

[NOTE: That the exchange rate for domestic currency (the American dollar, and the English pound) for many convention goers may have played a high contributing factor for them not being able to attend a convention in the Netherlands. Cost for attending members was about £65 for the 5 days, as well accommodation cost of £16 per night upwards.  Adding to this, the US's concerns about the War in the Middle East!!]

The short anime programme that Helen ran, was only about fifty yards away from the main building, located in one of the smaller meeting rooms in the 'Bel Air' Hotel, and ran for 4 hours per day, it was well attended, and with a noticeable “hard core”of 20 regulars per session. Some of the Anime that was showcased was as follows; Cyber City Oedo 808, Back Magic marionette M-66, Project A-KO, Megazone 23 Part II, Patlabor, Bubblegum Crisis.

There was an Anime panel, and apparently “Fred Patten” was due to be on that panel, but was a no-show, leaving Steve Kyte to became its moderator and, Mr. Osaku and his translator as the attendees. The room that the panel was in, was attended by about 200 people. Later Mr. Osaku was able to show “DORAEMON THE ATOMIC CAT” (translated for American TV).

[NOTE: in regards to the Dealer's Room, out of all of the SF dealers that were present, only two examples could be found that had any Anime merchandise at all.]

  

BITS & PIECES

Page 5. Was split-up into a few sections of different announcements; 

David Row's plans for a “Tapelist database”; 

Anime screenings (at Helen's home in London, 1 in November and 1 in December); 

Peter Evans tells us about JSTV – the satellite channel for expats, is soon to show an Anime series (a cookery show); 

DEPARTMENT OF ABSOLUTE ENVY (Patrick Collins is in Tokyo and in 1991 so will Peter Evans); 

ITALIAN ANIME CLUB (Japanime Fans Club, Pietro Da Lissone M 13, 20035); 

KITS – Available from Sheffield Space Centre (Bandai GUNDAM kits in stock, and Rick Cowling writes article that's in “Model and Accessories Mart”, and plugs Paul Davison's anime Group); 

BSB showed “Power of the Lens” (again).

REVIEWS:

Pages 6 & 7 had Anime reviews of NEW Devilman OVA, and CYBER CITY OEDO 808 OVA by Helen McCarthy.

Pages 8 & 9 consisted of the article, 'Anime Clubs in the USA' by Richard Poffley

(EDC Animation Society – Dallas, Texas, AND Anime Hasshin – Warren, Rhode Island, and The C/FO – Culver city California, as well as a BBS run by Animag)

Pages 10 & 11 also had a Review; The story of GUNHED - the live action movie explained by Carlo Bernhardi, Anime Kyo UK

[NOTE: a short review of the video game GUNHED for the PC Engine, and the EDITOR'S NOTE : “Carlo kindly sent me 2 pieces of artwork copied from a GUNHED article, but they were too dark to reprint”.]

On Page 12 we can see an article entitled FIRST SIGHT – Video reviews by Dean Heathcote

reviews covered UK VHS releases; 'Warriors of the wind' and 'The World of the Talisman'.

Page 13 had OVERVIEW - a look at some recent publications by JIM SWALLOW

The overviews covered were; Mangajin Volume 1 No 1. (magazine), AND GUNDAM MOBILE SUIT VOLUME 1 : Awakening (novel by Yoshiyuki Tomino \ Translated by F. L. SCHODT).

Pages 14, 15 & 16 were given over to the Letters sent to the Editor.Jay Felton and Peter Milligan Wrote in to gives their views.

[NOTE: from the Editor “OK, OK, it's not a great title for a letter column – if you have a better suggestion let's hear it.]

Jay Felton Writes:

Jay Felton wrote on such topics as APAs (Amateur Press Association – Fan fiction self publishing); plans to create a guide for new fans to be able to find local groups in UK. Jay was also toying with the idea of a fun topic to have in the Newsletter themed around 'Desert Island Disks' just this time it would be what Anime film or OVA would you take with you?! The subject of dealing with those that Bootleg VHS anime tapes also came up.

Peter Milligan Writes:

"Mark (one of the owners) at “Fantasy Inn” has a Anime Fanzine in the works, and was due to be out in September" Peter lets the readers know that most video dealers (retail) you could order videos of the following;

WARRIORS OF THE WIND, Vestron, £7.99

CRUSHERS, MY-TV, £5.99   [Running Time Approx 89 minutes/Colour] 

ONCE UPON A TIME , MY-TV, £5.99  [92 minutes of Cartoon Fun] 

ROBOTECH episodes, £5.99  [Running Time Approx. 48 mins.]

ROBOTECH: THE SENTINELS, £7.99

Helen McCarthy in reply to Peter Milligan mentioned that the cost of converting 1 two hour NTSC VHS Tape to a Pal VHS tape - was £20 plus VAT!  

[NOTE: I have not found any other news on this front of a Fanzine! 'Fantasy Inn' was at 17 Charing Cross Road (under 'The Book Inn') London, England, the only other scrap of news on the Web I can find is that "This shop burnt down in 1991", but I have no other confirmation on this at this time.]

[NOTE: these retail VHS tapes were sold as kids cartoons, in English, as they have been Americanized, and edited for the children's market – the cover Art was just awful!]

I would like to say that the momentum of this London based nexus spread out across the country, not just a Pen-Pals contact list, but an inviting community that you could if you so wished, contribute to with your news, views and reviews in regards to all things Anime and Manga and letters to the Editor about this new Fandom in the UK.  All were welcome.

In the days of scissors, paper, and glue (the real CUT & PASTE), and typewriters and their like, all to be photocopied and stapled by hand, you can see the dedication in individually drawing the page numbers freehand.

AnimeUK Newsletter.

AnimeUK Newsletter.

AnimeUK Newsletter.

[NOTE: Helen McCarthy was kind enough to let me know, that “Anything not credited in the newsletter is usually by me”. (July 2020)]

[NOTE: 2020 was to see a 30^th anniversary celebration of the 1990 World Convention Confiction, but sadly it was cancelled due to COVID19. (For more details click the link)]  

Just a reminder that this was the face of poor marketing... aimed at children and their parents who has the cash to buy cartoons! 

[Side NOTE: using an Inflation calculator to look at those costs from the year 1990 (VAT was at 15%) to today's money in 2020. £5.99 = £15.04 & £7.99 = £20.06 & (£20.00 + 15% VAT) £23.00 = £57.74. and this was for animation from the early to mid 80's]

I have done my best in finding a balance between the holders of the intellectual property, and those in scholarly pursuit of Anime Fandom history in the UK (the 90's) for educational purposes No copyright infringement is intended.