April 1990 Pt.2 Anime V magazine.

April was still with us, and the postman delivered on time. First to drop though the letterbox was 'Anime V' (New Video Magazine.). It was at a time when Japanese Animators could shine, Anime was not bound by a 20 minute kids show on TV networks, new outlets had emerged, the Video Rental market mostly VHS video tapes, and the collectors market dominated by the LaserDisc (LD). 
 

This freedom gave rise to a plethora of magazines devoted to this home entertainment market (sadly some publishing runs did not last), with the OAV (Original Animation Video) or sometimes referred to as OVA ( Original Video Animation). Animation studios staked their reputation on original stories, and tested the water with a transfer from a manga or a popular novella, but not all OVAs came out on all of these formats.

[Note: Other formats such as S-VHS, VHD (Video High Density a laserdisc technology from JVC) .] 

The example are used to briefly show you the contents and style in this short pictorial introduction of the Japanese Anime Magazine Anime V' (New Video Magazine.)

 'Anime V' (New Video Magazine.), First Published in June 1985 by Gakken Co., Ltd. (学習研究社 ) Consisting of 140 pages (including the front & back covers), #4 April 1990 (Vol. 52).

 The first few pages featured are about  the OVA 'Hades Project Zeorymer'.

[Note: Anime V started its monthly print on September 1986 with Volume 9. Gakken also published the monthly Anime magazine Animedia. You can see the publisher's name on the spine of the magazines 学習研究社©.]

Well it's the Contents page!

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OVA No. 7 of Bubblegum Crisis - "Double Vision"

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 OVA 'Sol Bianca'

OVA  'Blue Sonnet'  & ?

The short story  'Takegami'  Pages 39-45

 OVA Takegami: Guardian of Darkness

OVA 1-4 Hades Project Zeorymer

 OVA 1-4 Hades Project Zeorymer

OVA 1-4 Hades Project Zeorymer

OVA 1-4 Hades Project Zeorymer

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 "New Items"

 

 "New Items"

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Gdleen OVA

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 First OVA of 'Sol Bianca' & 'Hi-Speed Jecy' a little know OVA series, both in my TOP 5.

 Fan Artwork.

 OVA Of 'What's Mickael?' insightful & Funny about cats and people.

 A sealed 8 page section at the back of 'Anime V' the would belong on the top shelf.

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 The one the only 'Devilman' by Go Nagai.

I hope that this disply gives a fare overview of what 'Anime V' was all about.

Skip Blog and go to Anime V - May 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.]

March 1990 Pt.5b Manga

What's Michael?. Written and illustrated by Makoto Kobayashi. published by Eclipse Books (Eclipse International) with translation by Dana Lewis & Toren Smith of Studio Proteus, Sold as a single issue Graphic Album (about 110 pages), March 1990 . Originally serialized in Comic Morning Magazine and published by Kodansha Ltd. From 1985 to 1990 (Nine Volumes were published over this time.

“ The cat comic that exploded onto the bestseller lists in Japan is now available in America”

AWHAT'S MICHAEL? Is a collection short stories set in a multiverse about Michael the cat, and his interactions with food providers\owners as well as in an anthropomorphic Cat Vs Dogs world.

Toren Smith of Studio Proteus, said “it's a very funny comic.”

“WHAT'S MICHAEL? Explores the foilbies and follies of cat-fanciers, and cats, from every walk of life.!”

Toren Smith was asked by Eclipse International to try and get the rights WHAT'S MICHAEL? From Kodansha Ltd. he very sceptical as they where a huge company and that they already had a relationship with a major American Comic-book publisher, Marvel. But they turned out to be very approachable and professional. 

 

[Note: on the inside page of the Album there is printed “Special thanks to Kodansha liaison Yuda Ando.”]

At the time it was a big gamble for Eclipse and Studio Proteus to sell though a chain of book stores in the USA a funny comic-book about a cat, when one of those book store chains only bought 50 copies initially, then only a few months later ordered 500! So volume was also in the running, and all before these cute cats on the internet too!

[Note: The above information about Studio Proteus involvement was gleaned from an Interview published in Issue 22 of 'The Rose' July 1990, Anime Hasshin's club-zine – Lorraine Savage interviewed Toren Smith.]

[Note: it took some considerable time to pinpoint the month of this album's printing.]