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.]

January 1990 Pt1.

Moving forward in to the 90's with the knowledge of a Video programme that would be a part of the British Science Fiction Convention (EastCon 90) taking place over the weekend of the 14^th. of April, and the hopes of meeting like-minded people for the first time, gave me the motivation to find more information and make new contacts regarding Japanese popular culture.

[Note: In Post 6. I touched upon the importance of the British FanZine MekTek.

MekTek ]

The art of polite letter writing, whether a letter was handwritten or typed (on a manual typewriter no less!) people did embellish the envelopes, make their own letter-headed paper, and had little pieces of artwork to accompany their signature, this all added to the Pen-Pals network a sense of community however far apart we all where. Having the patience for a reply (that would take weeks in some cases, as International mail can take its time), add to this that you may not be the only person writing to them that week, the time scale for communicating back and fourth was unlike today’s electronic mail and messaging services for speed of delivery!

[Note: In Post 25. I start to hint at the importance of the September (1989) issue of Appleseed Book 3 part 2, as the gateway to the American Anime Fandom, and a means to contact Pen-Pals in the Uk. American Anime Fandom, started to find more details here EDC & Anime Hasshin.]

So the the two main American Anime Fan clubs I contacted where 'Anime Hasshin' and the E.D.C., and may I add that I was not the only one who had seen the listings in the issue of the Appleseed Comic-book, and that many American Fan clubs had contacts and members lists to put people in touch with one another, that was all part of the family of the Anime Fandom in those days. As you can see from these flyer’s Anime characters, Science Fiction and Comedies where popular icons of the day!

 I hope you can name all the Anime characters?!

A new medium of cartoon animation.

My motivation is to instil what it was like to discover a new medium of cartoon animation to a modern Anime Fan (post 2000), and to reunite those memories with the family of fans from a simpler time.


I would like to dedicate this Blog to two pioneers that heavily influenced my fascination with Japanese popular culture –

Toren Smith (April 12, 1960 to March 4, 2013)

Carl Macek (September 21, 1951 to April 17, 2010).

Your choices shaped a whole generation, even outside of the US in falling in love with the pictorial image and animated visuals from Japan.