#1761

Written by Fred Patten, and printed on a Xerox photocopier, February 11^th, 1999. Intended for Apa L, 1,761^st Distribution, LASFS Meeting N^o 3209, February 11^th, 1999. Address: 11963 West Jefferson Boulevard, apt. 2, Culver City, California, 90230-6322. Telephone: (310) 827-3335

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Shin Getter Robo, #3, 'The Annihilation of Japan!! Farewell, Getter'
Utena, la Fillette Revolutionnaire: l'Apocalypse, #07, 'Jury Follows Through to the End'
ReBoot, v.3.1.4, 'Game Over'
featurette: Virgin Fleet; the Sacred Virgin Fleet, #1, 'First Operation: Maiden Voyage' (AIC, 1998)
Brain Powerd, #1, 'Out of the Ocean Depths'
Hyper Police, #16, 'Hey, Everyone?'
Those Who Hunt Elves II, #4, 'Those Who Run Heaven and Earth'
Flame of Recca, #1, 'If the Princess and the Ninja Awaken!!'
feature: Lupin III: Tokyo Crisis (Tokyo Movie Shinsha, 1998)

It took me a couple of weeks to get the notes on the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization's 261st (January) meeting which I missed due to attending Further Confusion on that weekend. Here is its program; for my records, whether or not anyone else is interested.

Ranma 1/2, #15, 'Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands'
Ranma 1/2, #16, 'Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul'
Ranma 1/2, #17, 'I Love You, Ranma! Please Don't Say Goodbye!!'
feature: The Crimson Pig (Studio Ghibli, 1992)
Bastard!!; Destructive God of Darkness, #1, 'The Exploder Wizard'
Ranma 1/2, #18, 'I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?'
Bastard!!; Destructive God of Darkness, #2, 'Fire Elemental Efreet'
Mobile Battleship Nadesico, #3, 'Too Early for Goodbye!'
Mobile Battleship Nadesico, #4, 'Longing in Aqua Colored Space'
Key, the Metal Idol, Ver. 1, 'Startup'
Key, the Metal Idol, Ver. 2, 'Cursor I'

Cinema Anime's 7^th (February) meeting, last Sunday, was plagued by a greater number of program substitutions than usual due to unavailable videos. Attendance was the usual dozen or so, although it was noticeable that about half seemed to be primarily Ranma 1/2 fans, since they left when the last of the four episodes was shown. Bastard!! was an amusing variation on one of the adventure fantasy plots that seems original to Americans but has been done to death in Japan; the pure-testosterone handsome, incredibly powerful but amoral demon (wizard, in this case) who is summoned by the heroes to defend them from an even more powerful, evil demon; and who is kept under control (they hope) by the power of the innocent virgin among the questers, who hopes to reform him while avoiding being raped by him. In this case, the amusing variation was the sprinkling of the plot with the thinly-disguised names of popular heavy-metal rock bands: the Kingdom of Metallica, the evil demon Anthrax, a powerful spell that ends, "GUNS 'N ROSES!!" Wordplay was also heavy in the first three Ranma 1/2 episodes, featuring the Chinese girl Shampoo (Shan Pu) who brainwashes her rivals into forgetfulness. She also constantly says "nihao", the Chinese word for "hello", which is a setup for one of the most famous puns in anime, to become obvious in later episodes as a pun on "meow" when it is revealed that she turns into a cat when she gets wet. (A Chinese/English pun in a Japanese-dialogue script.)

I just saw an oddity in the bookshops last weekend: a February 1999 facsimile reprint of "The Lost Star Trek Novel", the first Star Trek novelization, Mack Reynold's Mission to Horatus, published as a 1968 dimestore juvenile TV novelization before Paramount realized the marketability of Star Trek novelizations as full-price adult s-f books. This facsimile is exactly like the first edition except for the substitution of Pocket Books' imprint for the Whitman Publishing Division, the removal of the adv'ts for other 1968 Whitman boys' adventure novels, a new Introduction by John Ordover, Executive Editor, describing how this "lost" novel is "Presented now in the twentieth anniversary of Pocket Books' Star Trek novel line, in as close to the original form as we can make it", and the substitution of Pocket Books' $16.00 tag for Whitman's 59¢. An, inflation! Although, to be fair, since nobody publishes books in this format any longer, Pocket Books presumably had to set up a special press to recreate this facsimile.

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-- Comments On The Last Distribution:

De Jueves #1107 -- (Moffatts) No, the Cute Hedgehog in Saint Tail looked like a plushie of a realistic one; the pet that the British refer to as "a pincushion that pees". ## The subtitlers' explanatory note at the beginning of that Saint Tail episode did not go into the "why" that Japanese girls are so embarrassed to be seen by boys buying sweet potatos. The implication was just that it was one of those inexplicable Adolescent Girl Things. I would have to watch the video again to see whether the note specified whether Japanese girls are only embarrassed to be caught buying sweet potatos or to be caught eating them, too.

Vanamonde #299 -- (Hertz) Most of the wordplay in Japanese cartoons is, understandably, of a juvenile or adolescent level, but there certainly is a lot of it. ## Saint Tail is (possibly deliberately) vague on the specific mechanics, but if that teen nun-in-training is not hearing Confessions, then she must have the type of personality that encourages strangers to babble their most private woes to her.

Blue Jaunt to GAFIA #1 -- (Thompson) I hope that your title doesn't mean you are preparing to leave us again. ## The animals were obviously allowed into Further Confusion by the hotel (aside from the fact that the convention publicly thanked the hotel for its permission) since the hotel staff helped the wildlife handlers to move in the cages for the tiger, ocelot, and serval. Possibly the fact that the animals were limited to a single room for only a few hours helped get the permission. As I reported, the hotel got high marks with the fans for its cooperation in every respect except for the high prices.