Sunday, 31 August 2014
April 1990 Pt.1c UK Anime Fandom.
My
own recollections Of EastCon'90 are of the late night screenings that had seen the
'word' spread, so much so that there was standing room only. So many
wide-eyed people were willing to watch this fresh animation from
Japan without narration, or sub-tiles, it was intoxicating!
Film
cinematography's camera techniques are liberally used, the long shot,
the panning & tilting shots, Dolly & tracking shots, and the
close-up, as well as camera\video special effects of split screen,
and circling shots that just blew people away and all well before the
matrix had an array of cameras to do its time-slice photography of
circling around a person (all done by hand with hand-painted cels
numbering from 10 to 24 0r 25 or sometime 30 frames per second)!
There
was disbelief also that the humble cartoon could display depictions
of violence in a realistic manner (NO more of the ubiquitous Tom &
Jerry frying-pan in the face, that you just shrugged off), and in
horrific detail that would rival any live-action horror movie that
went before!
[Note: I do vividly
remember people so shocked and ill at ease that they left the
auditorium in one of the very late-night adult showings of an episode
of “Wondering kid” (you may know the edited together and cut
film, under the title “Urotsukidōji”) in it's now legendary
tentacle scene.]
In
contrast Japanese Animation had a “U” certificate, as Kids
Cartoons straight to video in the UK, and the MY-TV label did turn up
a t EastCon'90, - recently Helen McCarthy was able to fill me on the
details surrounding this company's appearance at the convention.
“MY-TV
was a label part-owned by one of the directors at the music and video
company I worked for at the time. They
re-badged and distributed US material, mostly from Harmony Gold,
which is how the UK got releases of some great Anime like Birth and
Crushers so early on - short-lived but still there.
I
just told my boss about the event and he decided they should show up
and try to sell a few tapes.
He
had no idea there was a market for "this Japanese kids' stuff"
outside the children's market.
Of
course this was before Island world/Manga Entertainment started the
fifteening of the industry.”
[Note:
INTERVISION VIDEO LIMITED was the parent company of MY-TV, the
Editing, rewriting\dubbing, and renaming had been done by US company
Harmony Gold, and I think video (VHS) distribution licensed though
Streamline Pictures. ]
Once
Upon a Time (VHS release 1987,1988,1989)
Original
Title 'Windaria' (1986)
Crushers (VHS release1987,1988,1989)
Original
Title 'Crusher Joe: The Movie' (1983)
Original
Title 'X-Bomber'
(1980)
[UK
DVD Box-Set released in 2009]
[NOTE: World
of the Talisman (VHS release1987,1988,1989) Original
Title ' Birth' (1985)]
To
be continued..........
Sunday, 17 August 2014
April 1990 Pt.1b UK Anime Fandom.
A
look back at EastCon '90. (the Pen-Pals network meets up),
The
content that forms this page is not just my own recollections but
excerpts from a smattering of surviving letters from fellow UK Anime
fans that have survived from around that time both pre and post
Convention, and that of my own memories of that time.
As
I write, I am finding it difficult to convey the newness and
excitement of a medium of animation from Japan that was not just
Kids' Saturday morning cartoon shows, that was free to aim at many
different age groups for its audience, as well as the masses of
genres that live-action film and TV used, it was so astonishing (in
modern language it was “F*?%ing Awesome”).
I
had only known of others' existence by writing into Canadian &
American Magazines, Ads in Comic-books, and JapAnimation fan Clubs,
and by joining these Fan Clubs you got to find other fans with new
and exciting interest in your country and the more established fans
from Canada & America and those outside the US.
By
April 1990 I was only in contact with a few (about Six)
UK fans by post.
And
so for many this was the First meeting of Japanese Animation Fans,
that up until that point had only been Pen-pals, or thought that they
were alone in their interest!
EastCon
'90 (April
14th & 15th 1990) was
my first Convention, my first Science Fiction Convention and my first
introduction to Con-going. The Registration was the princely sum of
£25, and after you registered, a hotel booking form was sent out (by
post), you of course were free to choose any accommodation in
Liverpool, and the more Anime fans that booked and informed the
organisers that it was Anime that drew you to the Con the more time
was allotted to the media section and the showing of more Anime (as
of mid February it was almost half the entire slot for TV/Films for
the weekend of the Convention).
Only
months later I would find out that two of the members of Anime
Hasshin (an American Anime & manga fan-club) had contributed
almost 50 hours to the library of Anime that was shown. At the time
I did put out flyers for Anime Hasshin at EastCon 90, and proudly
wore the tin badge of Anime Hasshin at the Convention hoping to boost
the Fandom and bring people together!
Many
fans had sought out Anime (then widely known as Japanimation) from a
multitude of interests, the depiction of Power-Armour battle suits
and giant robot war machines in science Fiction (fanned from the
craze of Robot model kits in the mid1980's), from the heritage of
dubbed popular cartoon shows shown in the 70's ('Kimba the white
Lion', 'Marine Boy', 'Speed racer'), people wanted to find more.
More
fans at that time had a keen interest in Japanese culture even their
Business practises and acumen, as well as their social structure and
etiquette, their religions, beliefs
of
Shinto
and Buddhism and how they fitted in to daily life, the Japanese
school system which helped to produce such a high national literary
rate, and a few of us were transfixed with the fascination of the
Samurai and the historical period of the Shogunate! Dipping in to
Japanese popular culture you could not fail to notice that Manga was
every where, and read by Children, Teenagers, and Adults alike!
NOTE: Con booklet, and paperwork provided by P. Davison (Feb 2021).
NOTE: Con booklet articles written by Helen McCarthy, Harry Payne, and information by EastCon committee members, Anime (robots) Artworks by Steve Kyte.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
April 1990 Pt.1a UK Anime Fandom.
April 1990 was to be an
important time as the word had spread from
'MekTek' Issue #3 telling us about one up and coming Science fiction
Convention over the Easter weekend (April 14th & 15th 1990)
EastCon '90 showing Japanese Animation (well that's how I got to know! Thank you Ashley.), and as I've later found out
another Convention held over the Easter weekend in April of 1990 was
Elydore, a media Convention held at Shepperton, that also had a showing
of Japanese Animation in one of its Video rooms, run by Miss J. Felton (No futher details of this as yet).
[Note:
This will be ground Zero for the UK Anime Fandom as I would know it.]
After over 20 years its
not all that easy to remember the details, or that easy not to start
embellishing with hindsight those events luckily for me I had written
a Con-Report that was published in American Anime club's magazine
Anime Hasshin's “The Rose” Issue #22 July 1990.
So here I am quoting
myself word for word.
UK FANS MEET AT
EASTERCON '90 IN LIVERPOOL.
By Carlo Bernhardi
Friday the 13th!
It certainly wasn't unlucky for me! It was my first chance to see
Anime shown at EastCon '90 (the National British SF Convention) in
Liverpool – the first time ever for Anime in the United Kingdom.
As the Con was SF in
general, the Anime seemed to be in the nature of a filler with time
slots from midnight to 4:30am and then from 8:00am to mid-day.
Helen McCarthy
organised the Anime and it was very good indeed, mostly action and
adventure.
AKIRA drew the greatest
audience and 'Wandering Kids' and 'Cream Lemon' filled the room to
capacity. My first taste of original Anime was 'Galactic Patrol
Lensman'.
I was please to meet
three 'Robotech' fans, you could hardly miss them wearing their
home-made Zentraedi badges, posing as the three spies to find out as
much as they could about Anime. We've kept in touch ever since.
So it was a very small
percentage of the whole Con that constituted Anime fans. But the
programme was a great success and it brought us all together.
Eveyone I met declared that they loved every minute of it! Even when
they couldn't understand a word of it!
The Anime shown at the
Con:
'Southern Cross',
'Gundam', 'Five Star Stories', 'Crusher Joe' (English), 'Iczer-1',
'Hokuto no Ken', 'Space Cobra', ' Dunbine', 'Black magic', 'City
Hunter', 'Robot Carnival', 'Akira', 'Megazone 23 Part 2', 'Lupin
III', 'Orguss', 'Windaria' (English), 'Macross', 'Wandering Kids',
'Cream Lemon', 'Digital Target Grey', 'Project A-KO', 'Dirty Pair',
and 'Dr. Slump'.
With the explosion of
Anime now being heard across this country, the nucleus of which was
created at the end of the Con by a few people, a national fanzine is
being formed and small local clubs have appeared whose founding
members keep in touch by mail with small amounts of info on Manga and
Anime flying around.
Carlo Bernhardi 1990 ©
[Note: With hindsight I can up-date and elaborate on some of the
Anime titles that were shown: the 2 English dubs shown as 'Crusher
Joe' & 'Windaria' were in fact from a kids cartoon Video label called
“My TV” respectively renamed 'Crushers' and 'Once upon a Time'.
'Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross',
'Fight – Iczer-1', 'Fist of
The North Star', 'Space adventure Cobra', 'Aura Battler Dunbine',
'Black Magic marionette M-66 ', 'Super Dimension Century Orguss',
'Macross:
Do You Remember Love?', and 'Wandering Kid' a 3 part OVA that was edited
and cut in Japan into a film, this film was then futher cut for BBFC
18 ratting in the UK and is better known as “Urotsukidōji”.]
[Note: You can compare
the Video room showings from the 'San Diego ComicCon' 1989 &1990
at
[Note:
The kids cartoon Video label called “My TV” was at the Convention at
Helen McCarthy's request.]
[Note: To quote Steve
Kyte "So get ready for UK Anime Fandom - EASTCON 90 is just the
beginning!" (Source - Heavy Metal Heaven (the robot in Japanese
Animation) by Steve Kyte 1990.© ]
March 1990 Pt.6 Manga round-up
We
still had a few on-going
Manga comic-books and
Anime based comic-books that could be still found “On the racks”
in March of 1990, such as:-
#15 of Outlanders.
from Dark Horse
Comics.
#5 of Appleseed: Book3,
(End of Book3)
#6 of 'Cyber 7: Book
Two',
#5 of Dirty Pair II,
(End of DP II)
#4 of Dominion.
from Eclipse Comics.
#2
of
Lensman
#4 of 'Leiji
Matsumoto's Captain Harlock',
#15
of 'Robotech II – The Sentinals Book One'
from Eternity
Comics.
#2 of COBRA
#6
of Crying Freeman: Part
One
#4
of 'Baoh',
#1
of HOROBI: Part One
from
Viz Comics.
GRAPHIC-NOVELS ON SALE
IN THIS MONTH:
What's
Michael?
from
Eclipse Comics
[Note: You still had
some of the issues of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' from First comics, and 'AKIRA'
from Epic
Comics,
on the shelves as the printing and overseas delivery were not always
every month.]
March 1990 Pt.6 Manga round-up
We
still had a few on-going
Manga comic-books and
Anime based comic-books that could be still found “On the racks”
in March of 1990, such as:-
#15 of Outlanders.
from Dark Horse
Comics.
#5 of Appleseed: Book3,
(End of Book3)
#6 of 'Cyber 7: Book
Two',
#5 of Dirty Pair II,
(End of DP II)
#4 of Dominion.
from Eclipse Comics.
#2
of
Lensman
#4 of 'Leiji
Matsumoto's Captain Harlock',
#15
of 'Robotech II – The Sentinals Book One'
from Eternity
Comics.
#2 of COBRA
#6
of Crying Freeman: Part
One
#4
of 'Baoh',
#1
of HOROBI: Part One
from
Viz Comics.
GRAPHIC-NOVELS ON SALE
IN THIS MONTH:
What's
Michael?
from
Eclipse Comics
[Note: You still had
some of the issues of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' from First comics, and 'AKIRA'
from Epic
Comics,
on the shelves as the printing and overseas delivery were not always
every month.]
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