30th Anniversary for UK Anime Fans

Please join me in celebrating the 30th. Anniversary of the first organised meeting of the UK's Anime Fans. 

Held at the UK's Easter Science Fiction convention EastCon'90 in Liverpool, England. 

Friday 13th  to Sunday 15th  of April.

My thanks go to; Ashley from MEKTEK for sending me flyers for EastCon 90; Steve Kyte for telling us "So get ready for UK Anime Fandom - EASTCON 90 is just the beginning!"; And to Helen McCarthy for her herculean skills in organizing the Video Rooms screening of Anime, and encouragement to the group of Anime Pen-Pals.

My recollection of the UK's Anime Fandom.

Taken from the very first AnimeUK Newsletter, one statement rang out true!

"You're getting this because you were at EASTERCON 90 bar meeting or else have written to me to express an interest in anime fandom in the UK, and since it didn't really exist before EASTERCON you're part of the setup crew!"

"you're part of the setup crew!"

To this day it can still invoke memories of how it felt, like a time of wonderment to so many of us. More new friendships were made, and the Fandom grew.

It would be less than a year later, that the UK would have its very first Anime convention;

'Anime Day' 

held in Sheffield on Saturday 9th of March 1991, but that is another story.

NOTE: As of this posting the UK is in its 3rd week of 'Lockdown' due to the outbreak the Covid-19 Virus  (the Coronavirus World pandemic of 2020). Stay safe, and stay sane.

NOTE: Right, back to 1990 and the months that lay ahead.

NOTE: Con booklet, and paperwork provided by P. Davison (Feb 2021).

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 13^th! 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 

video-room.]

[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.© ] 

More on Comic Book stores

Our Local Heroes were people who ran comic book stores.

Manager Lance Fielder from 'Another World' comic book store (specialists importers of Science fiction) in Leicester.

FanZines.

I first picked up an Issue of 'Protoculture Addicts' which at that time was the official Fanzine for Robotech, (produced and printed in Canada) sometime in the late 80's. With such features as “The voice of the Freedom Fighters” (Fan letters page), “Japanimation & manga” (Reviews), “The shaping of Protoculture” (feed-back to readers including :- addresses for Pen Pals, retail stores that do mail-order, and other Fan clubs), the “News & Reviews” page focussed on available translated Manga, Anime magazines, Fanzines, and fan clubs too).

['Protoculture Addicts' started with only 6 fanzines by the end of 1989, this would only grow and grow, more on this later..!]

[With some very well known Fan Clubs from America; C/FO (Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation), Anime Hasshin (run by Lorraine Savage), and Earth Defence Command (EDC) – just a few of the clubs in all, and I must say that many individuals and organisers help support the UK Anime fandom, and are in touch to this day!]

 [Note: started to find more details here EDC & Anime Hasshin.]

Mektek

After picking up the two fanzines together MekTek 2 (Summer 1988) & MekTek 3 (Summer 1989) from 'Another World' comic book store in Leicester in the winter1989, these yearly British FanZines centred on Battle Suit Warfare games mainly BattleTech with new rules and scenarios for players, and surprisingly a follow-up on the Japanese roots of these Giant robots used in the games, edited by Ashley Watkins, with contributions such as the Stunning black & white Artwork by Steve Kyte

(Patlabor, Macross), and the many reviews from Helen McCarthy on Manga and Anime in the UK.

[I think 'MekTek 3' told us about an up and coming Science fiction Convention over the Easter weekend April 14th & 15th 1990 (note: this will be ground Zero for the UK Anime Fandom as I would know it).]

[I wrote to Ashley Watkins in November of 1989, and got a reply in January 1990 with flyers for EastCon 90 and the contact details for a very busy lady, by the name of Helen McCarthy (we have been Anime friends ever since).]

[Not forgetting the early form of Etiquette the Stamped Self Addressed Envelope (SSAE), this also enabled the recipient to reply a lot sooner.]

[just think of it.....the time it took to gather this information and then publish it once a year, if Wiki or Google was down for just a day the shock would reverberate across the internet and smart-phones, how like sheep have we become trusting on the reliance of technology?!]

[More on these pioneering fanzines will come later..!!]