Presentation PA #52

In a recent letter, a reader was complaining that we don't give "Spoiler Warning" at the beginning of our articles. We do this (or we rather don't do this), not because we take a malicious pleasure in spoiling your fun, but simply because we don't think it is necessary. The reader was specifically referring to a news bit in PA#51 about the NADESICO movie which was saying that Akito and Yurika were not in the movie because they DIED during their honeymoon. That information was simply translated from AX magazine (which was not giving any "Spoiler Warning" either), and it was not really a spoiler since it was merely explaining why those characters were NOT in the movie. Anyway, I have never seen any "Spoiler Warnings" in any print magazines. I think it is something found only on the internet. The reason would be that all information on a newsgroup or e-mail is unsolicited and those who read it have no means to know what's in it if there is no clear header. That's why it is important to warn people of any spoilers at the beginning of a message. However, if you buy a movie or an anime magazine, it is because you WANT to have information and you know very well that such magazines contains information, sometimes very detailed, about the story of a movie or anime. All respected magazine will take care not to give away a crucial plot device in a review (that's what we do), because the purpose of a review is to tell people if a title is interesting or not before they see it or buy it, and there is no need to give more than the very basic storyline. But, the purpose of an article is to go into details. In our particular case, we write articles specifically to help people understand the story of an animation that is available only in Japanese. Then the details are very important and it is clearly understood that it WILL contain spoilers. No need to give warnings -- unless it is an article about a title which is commercially available in English, and we rarely cover such titles in details. That's why we never gave any warnings. However, since the internet is becoming more common, that the latest generation is not giving much thoughts before reading anything and they expect the world to adapt to THEIR needs, maybe that reader who complained is right: we should start putting a simple warning somewhere at the beginning of the magazine ;)

SPOILER WARNING: This magazine contains important plot details about several Japanese animation. Reader discretion is advised.

This issue is late again, but only because the previous issue was very late. This time, we worked very hard to make sure we would not add to the already accumulated delay. Everything went rather smoothly. My kidney problem is not solved yet, but at least it didn't give me any pain and, since I was rushing nearly eighteen hours a day, I had no time to be lovesick! We intend to continue to work hard and to actually catch up on a part of the delay. Next issue (PA#53: Marmalade Boy, Borgman OVAs, Interview with Mari Iijima, etc.) should be released on time (late December)!

This issue offers you our first coverage of RUROUNI KENSHIN (a really excellent series that we hope will eventually be released in English), the BORGMAN TV series (for the amateur of good old shows), a review of the FANT-ASIA festival (I wish we would had space to review more of those excellent movies!), reports (and anecdotes!) on all those great conventions we attended this summer (Anime Expo, Otakon, Anime North) and our regular columns (News & Reviews). Please, enjoy!

Claude J. Pelletier