July 1990 Pt.4 'PC Engine Fan' Magazine

PC Engine Fan - First Published in 1988 by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Consisting of 108 pages (including the front & back covers), Published Monthly #7 July 1990 (Volume 3),390 Yen.

[NOTE: The 'PC Engine Fan' magazine was part of a few Japanese magazines that concentrated exclusively the home market of the NEC's video game consoles, and was devoted to the PC Engine. A compact and superior 8bit video game console, that evolved in a modular fashion, known for its slim credit-card sized games, and what is more it would have the first console games on CD-ROM, with high quality CD audio.]  

Wow! I'd almost forgotten I had any Japanese PC Engine magazines from 1990. Not only was it that it had Cel-like artwork on the front cover, much like Anime industry, but featured many video games that were Anime tie-ins much to my delight. 

Again not being able myself to translate the Japanese details of the contents of this magazine, what you get is solely from the few English words and the identifiable artworks and illustrations of tie-ins and popular games, but looking back this was full colour, and was just as powerful as static linked web-pages showing me a wider World, as even a 1990's video gamer the NEC's PC Engine was even more niche and underground than your average Anime and Manga fan in the UK.

Cover Cel-like art from  'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier III'.

 The Grey PC-Engine, with the Supper CD-ROM System, and Stereo add-on. 

 The Contents page (for you to translate if you like.)

'Urusei Yatsura - Stay with You',  better known as LUM

(game title to be added..!)

 Urusei Yatsura,  better known as LUM

(game title to be added..!)

 From the OVA 'Far East of Eden'.

Is this from an Anime ?

Advert for  'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier III'

(not an Anime, but with animation Cel like artwork).

Adverts for.............??  

Adverts for  'Sol Bianca' & 'Cyber City OEDO 808'

 Adverts for  

New games Coming soon. 

 Ranma 1/2

The Back cover with an advert for ' Ghosts and Ghouls'.  

Probably the best Arcade conversion for the PC Engine next to 'Street Fighter II'.

Truly the NEC's PC Engine was even more niche and underground than your average Anime and Manga fan in the UK in the late 1980's and early 1990's, but it too had its Fandom, and those interests did overlap for many Fans.

[NOTE: I still have the first 'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier' on CD-ROM.]

Manga in the 80's Pt. 8

Lum. Written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Comics published 9 issues in a Monthly format in 1989, taken from serialized manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday spanning from 1978 to 1987.

Known as Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens) in Japan this is a fanciful comedy following Ataru and his girlfriend Shinobu, who have relationship troubles like most young couples, but things are going to get a little bit more complicated, as Ataru has been randomly selected (by computer of course) to stop an Alien Invasion in proudly representing Earth as its champion in a competition of 'Tag'..! 

Faced with the world resting on his shoulders, and running out of time to tag the very cute Alien Lum (who could fly) Ataru only manages to grab hold of (and keep) Lum's bikini-top, his new found motivation of his girlfriend's offer to marry him if he wins, gets misunderstood by Lum as a marriage proposal! Now life for Ataru Moroboshi is all kinds of weird, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[Note: In the back cover of Issue 1, a small Biography is printed “She attended a woman's college in Tokyo where she began studying comics with 'Kazuo Koike” (the writer of 'Lone Wolf and Cub', and Crying Freeman). By the late1980's Rumiko Takahashi was the most popular comic-book writer in Japan!]

[We in the West have come to know this female Manga artist and writer Rumiko Takahashi and her many works, both comedic and supernatural from 'Ranma ½' to the Mermaid Saga!]

[With a recognisable supporting cast of characters that rivals 'The Simpsons' in number, Lum (aka Urusei Yatsura) is a Japanese phenominum that is hard to miss, and even harder not to like.]