Presentation PA #60

Japanese Animation And The Anime-Generation Movie Directors. In this issue, we are introducing you to Wangan Police Station, which became a superhit in Japan! The movie version has tremendously appealed to the young audience and earned over $50 million at the box office (despite the economical recession), making it one of the most profitable movies in Japanese history! We think that a large part of this success is due to the fact that director Katsuyuki Motohiro publicly says that he’s greatly influenced by anime shows and that he uses anime as reference materials such as the way of making music, screen arrangement, character designs, etc. The new directors & producers today in Japan are in their early 30’s and they all grew up with anime shows such as Yamato & Gundam. It might be “imprudent” to say that the previous generation directors looked down on anime shows in the past, considering them as cheap way of kids entertainment, but it is safe to say that they were not showing the enthusiastic influence we can see today! It seems that young movie directors actually want to make movies with characteristics similar to anime shows in order to entertain everyone. In the past, most of the movies & TV shows (live-action) were based on famous novels & classic literature. Today, lots of shows (anime & live action) are based on manga books, such as Salaryman Kintarô, GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) just to name a few. And since Japanimation became mainstream in the North American entertainment industry, even American directors started to say publicly that they’re greatly influenced by Japanese animation! For instance, directors such as Andy and Larry Wachowsky, who directed The Matrix, Darren Aronofsky, who directed Pi, publicly said that they love Japanese anime shows and that they want to make their films like anime! People might have thought before, “Only Japanese people can understand anime,” but it’s not the case anymore today! Due to Internet & Satellite-TV, we’re all linked together and anime fans from all over the world can talk to each other. I could never dream that a Japanese word like “Otaku” could be adopted as an international word to call enthusiastic fans. Young directors, like director Motohiro, are manga/anime generation youths and their way of making films emphasizes character designs, and with the use of computer graphics, their movies can really look like “manga which became alive” on the screen. Another example is when anime directors, like Hideaki Anno, start making live-action movies (such as Anno’s Love & Pop). Some movie critics call those directors, “Les Enfants Terribles (the terrible kids) of the digital generation”! In their films, they surely emphasize the manga-like feeling almost ridiculously, and yet, it works! They’re very skillful to be able to transform those images into the movie screen. Some traditional critics say, “Oh, this is not a movie! It’s trash, etc.,” but when new waves arrive, in any culture, usually the reception isn’t that good, and yet, it’s the audience choice that changes the entertainment world. That’s the law of supply & demand. We shall cover more shows like this in the future, so please stay tuned!

Miyako Matsuda

We are already at issue #60 (what a beautiful round number)! When I started this magazine (well, at the origin it was a Robotech fanzine), I never thought that it would go that far. I didn’t expect Japanese animation to become such a huge phenomenon either! Now, I am watching Gundam Wing on TV and I am feeling the same exhilaration that induced me to start Protoculture Addicts more than twelve years ago... It is the same feeling, but I have seen so many anime since then that I am amazed to still be able to enjoy it. Of course, we grew to become more critical and harder to please, but we still can find anime that are more than entertaining, that inspire genuine joy and, sometime, even awe. That’s why I think that, despite the stress of the deadlines and all the other unpleasant things that come with publishing a magazine, I could do this forever...

This issue features a spotlight on one of my favorite old series: Aura Battler Dunbine. It is a TV & OVA series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who also created Gundam and Garzey’s Wing, which is very similar, story-wise, to Dunbine. This spotlight includes the usual overview, character & mecha files, but the synopses were postponed until next issue because of space constraint (which is also the case with the index of the previous issues of the magazine). This issue also offers a spotlight on Lupin III (previously announced for PA#58) that includes a general overview of the Lupin III phenomenon, with a particular attention to The Castle Of Cagliostro, which has just been released by Manga Entertainment. You can also enjoy an article on a very popular Japanese live-action TV series Odoru Daisosasen (aka Wangan Police Station), convention reports (Anime Iowa, Nan Desu Con), the usual Anime World articles (Modern Japanese Music Database Part 4), several Anime Stories (Dual, Eden’s Bowy, Jyubei-chan, Sol Bianca), lots of Reviews (the latest Anime videos, Manga, live-action movies, Model Kits) and the latest News!

NEXT ISSUE: Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) TV & OVA series, Dunbine synopses (Episodes 1 to 28), Great Teacher Onizuka (aka GTO), Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo (aka Kare Kano), Amazing Nurse Nanako, Angel Links, and more convention reports. Reserve your copy!

Claude J. Pelletier