Presentation PA #65

Anime Characters Who Look For Happiness. In this issue, we are introducing you to the Saber Marionette series. Outwardly, it’s a comedy with ultra-deformed characters, but I hope you’ll enjoy the process of all those characters’ spiritual growth! Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry are still growing and all those comical episodes will charm you because of all these characters’ sincere search for happiness. Lime is full of energy, but is also very immature. Her genuine innocence is a weakness, but, sometimes, it’s a strength as well, because whenever she gets hurt, she can still believe in something and think in a positive manner. Cherry is very motherly and loves to do household chores and plays the “wife” role in Otaru’s house. She even finds a baby in one of the episodes. As for Bloodberry, she is wild, but more mature than the other two. She falls for Akashi who exactly looks like Otaru because, deep down, she is a grown woman who wants to have someone to herself and have a real relationship. Objectively speaking, despite the comical look, those episodes tell us that life is full of disappointments and not always fun. In fact, they show that life is a struggle and full of hardships! They’re basically Marionettes, but, as the story goes, we can see and understand those characters’ search for happiness as human beings. Seeking for happiness... It’s easier said than done, right? When we, humans, have fulfilled all our basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothings, etc., and are decently taken care of, what else do we need? To be Happy, right? In fact, many anime shows today seem to focus on their characters’ pursuit of happiness.

Also, in this issue, we present to you the second half of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Turn A Gundam. To me, Turn A is almost like a fairy tale (with lots of mecha?), showing that anime shows can go beyond the sub-culture and into the mainstream environment. Roland ends up supporting Queen Diana in her retired life and the show ends in a panorama of quiet snow, but we can feel the happiness of those characters, waiting for the spring to continue their lives. I appreciate the great efforts of Director Tomino, and the Sunrise staff members, for bringing us this show (I’m sure it was a great challenge!) and I hope that their next Gundam will be even more exciting!

Miyako Matsuda

Well, for us, spring has arrived! Days are getting longer and warmer. We are slowly getting out of our winter torpor. Summer is coming and, with it, lots of conventions and festivals to attend and keep us busy. Conventions also mean new acquisition annoucements from the anime distributors. And, if you look at our “New Releases” chart in the news section, you’ll notice that it has already begun: FLCL, KO Beast Century, Labyrinth Of Flame, Love Hina, Medabot, NieA_7, Now And Then Here And There, Soul Hunter, SciFi Harry, etc. This announces a busy summer, particularly with the release of titles like Amon Saga, City Hunter 2nd TV series, Assemble Insert, Nadia DVD, Akira remastered, Angel Sanctuary, Blood, Robotech, Big O and lots of Gundam! To cover all this we are planning to increase the number of pages of the magazine to seventy-two (at least for the key issues in Summer and Fall). Also, our web sites has moved to a new hosting facility (but the address remains the same: www.protoculture.qc.ca). This change brings more speed, more space and more goodies! -- but it takes time to implement them. Stay tuned! In the meantime, we worked hard to produce this issue and we hope that it will bring you happiness!

This issue offers spotlights on Bandai’s popular series Saber Marionette (J, J Again, R and J To X) and movie Dark Soldier D, as well as the second part of our coverage on Turn A Gundam (epsiodes #28-50). It also features a series of special reviews of Gundam toys & models, “Anime World” articles (convention reports on SugoiCon & Aka-Kon, The Modern Japanese Music Database Part 9), overviews of recent anime shows (“Anime Stories” on Boys Be.., Furi Kuri (aka FLCL), infinite Ryvius, NieA_7 and One Piece) , the usual Reviews (of the latest anime videos, manga, live-action movies, books and model kits), and the latest news! Enjoy!

NEXT ISSUE: Spotlights on The Big O, Rurouni Kenshin (the third and last part of our coverage: episodes #63-94), Hidamari no Ki (The Tree Under The Sun) as well as “Anime Stories” on BoogiePop Phantom, Gear Fighter Dendoh, The Goddess Candidates (aka Pilot Candidate), My Neighbors The Yamada, and more! For the first time, a 72-page issue! Don’t miss it!

Claude J. Pelletier