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Another great issue that is finally done, but it was not without pain: we had lots of computer crashes (thanks to Mac OS 7.6 -- and to think that I will soon have to upgrade to Mac OS 8!), many fears of flooding because of the heavy rain (but fortunately nothing happened), the NADESICO article took much longer than expected to assemble, we attended a couple of small conventions (see coverage in next issue), and our printer closed for a two-week vacation! Also, I had to temporarily move my office to the basement for the summer because of the very hot weather and my quite noisy neighbors. With all this we did not catch up on our production delay (it even got a little worse), but hey! shikata ga nai! Anyway, this issue is now in the past (we're already working hard on PA#47): you are holding it in your hands. We hope you'll like it.
Something great happened while I was working on MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO: humans went back to Mars! What a great achievement! Those pictures were really magnificent. I've spent hours and hours watching NASA news conferences on CNN (when they were not interrupted to talk about Tyson biting the ear of Holyfield, the DNC "money trail", or other ridiculous news item) or checking NASA's internet site. I really had the feeling of watching history unraveling.
Also, an anime releaser complained that we were giving bad reviews to his hentai titles! Let me tell you, readers, that we try our best to be fair and objective, but if we don't like it... we say so. It is only our opinion; I know that there is lots of hentai fans out there that will like that stuff no matter how bad it is. I admit that we tend to be a little harder on such titles because we don't find them entertaining (hey! I prefer real girls) and it needs to show more than useless sex & violence (like a story for example or REALLY beautiful animation) to earn some points. END OF SUMMER had a story. VISIONARY is funny. We try to talk about all titles to promote them, but we must stay truthful to our readers...
Final comment: EVANGELION movies and MONONOKE HIME are playing in Japan and we cannot see them! What a frustrating situation!!! Hopefully, they'll cross the Pacific before next year!
This issue offers a spotlight on MOBILE BATTLESHIP NADESICO (a.k.a. Martian Successor Nadesico) and it is much bigger than initially announced: it has 20 pages and covers all aspects of the series! NADESICO is a very recent series (it ended on Japanese TV less than six months ago) and it offers all the elements that make anime popular: it shows the epic voyage of a ship like in YAMATO; it has mecha designs and action similar to GUNDAM; it is also story-driven (like PATLABOR) with lots of character development (like EVANGELION), but is totally hilarious (like IRRESPONSIBLE CAPTAIN TYLOR). The show was rather popular in Japan, generating lots of merchandizing (cool models), and we hope that it will eventually be picked up for domestic release. This issue also offers an "Anime Story" on SHIN KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD, several "Anime World" articles (Anime Under Fire Part 3, Report from the Manga Culture panel discussion at the Center for the Arts Museum in San Francisco, Anecdotes from Ms. Colleen Doran's trip to Japan), and our usual load of reviews and news. Enjoy!
Next issue will cover X: THE MOVIE and the summer's conventions (Anime Expo, Anime North, Fant-Asia, etc.). PA#48 will spotlight THE FIDDLER OF HAMELIN and PA#49's main features will be YU YU HAKUSHO and FUSHIGI YUGI. Jane!
Claude J. Pelletier