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I love that Spider-Man show. Every superhero should have a giant robot!

Wow, what happened to Harlock's pants there? Need a little Cheer with bleach alternative, Captain!

In my fantasy world (as I no doubt made clear in earlier posts it must be where I live) where I've cowed and bludgoned Toei to bend to my will and put me in charge of releasing their stuff in America, not only would I have all these series out on DVD, I'd release a line of 'TV Manga Festival' DVDs, with the complete program for each run (yearly? bi-annual? are they still doing them?) including whatever else a Japanese child would have seen, such as if there is a Japanese version of those 'let's all go out to the lobby' ads and whatever contemporary movie trailers they might have shown.

wouldn't that be a wonderful way to create 'samplers' for people to experence shows they might not otherwise consider buying?

Of course that's not a totally fair thing to do as the various featurettes were often crafted with extra effort compared to the series, they weren't ALL just revamps of TV episodes. But you know, if it hooks ya, it's all good. :)

Ah, if only fantasy could be reality.

Hey Steve,

There's a bootleg out there that contains English subbed versions of all the Manga Matsuri trailers...all of them! But of course, you don't believe in bootlegs, do you? Haw haw!

Ohh, yep, you got me! I'm a stone cold fool for turning my back on buying bootlegs and thus not paying the creators of the wonderful crap I like to watch! Haw Haw indeed! I'm so dumb...

You know, if you think about it, life is like a sea of stars...and this post is like a bootleg of the program booklet for the Toei Manga Matsuri!

See also: Jet lag symptoms

# Loss of appetite
# Nausea and/or upset stomach
# Headaches and/or sinus irritation
# Fatigue
# Disorientation and/or grogginess
# Insomnia and/or highly irregular sleep patterns
# Irritability, irrationality
# Mild depression

Hey, I'll see your depression and exceed it to OVER 9000!

And just about everything else except the jet lag.

I'm not dogging on ya bro, we all answer to our own personal god. For some it's Jesus, for some it's Mazinger Z. gotta say, Breast Fire is a hard act to top...

And the Akiba shit is nuts. Just nuts.

I think the Overtones are out of synch with your receiver implant. Watch some stupid American TV, eat some worthless American food and take a couple asprin, ok?

I could be totally dogmatic AND pedantic here and point out that with very, very, VERY few exceptions, none of the stuff we've bought in our misspent lives has resulted in a single penny going directly back to the creators of same. And most of the video came to us for only a little more than the cost of raw materials. So refusing to buy bootlegs, honorable though it may be, only succeeds in denying money to bootleggers.

I COULD point that out, but I won't...

Tim, Do you think JAniCA will improve working conditions for creators? Raise wages, increase royalties, and add health benefits?

Tim, that's not true, I'm surprised to hear that from you. Yes, it's a long chain, but it IS there.

I buy a book from Books Nippan. BN bought the book from Tokuma Shoten. Tokuma licensed the book from the license holder, hence my buying that book does put money in the pocket of the creators.

Naturally, how much depends on the deal cut, and one could argue it's more of a 'pay it forward' deal because successful sales means a licensee is more likely inclined to put up funding for the next project from the production company, but either way, it works out.

Of course when it comes to used stuff, second hand market and such then yes, you're right.

but every single book I bought from Books Nippan, every single LP I bought from S.T,A.R. or Melody Records, and the CDs from Laser Perceptions and CD Japan, and the toys and models from 20th Cent. importers and Pony Toy...yeah, I feel clean about that. I do my part. :)

Old school retro: relief from the tragedy that happened out there on that day.

My sis used to have that Candy-Candy set. :)

James, don't confuse my comments with an endorsement for bootleggers. I'm aware of the difference between a dead-end purchase and one that contributes to a legitimate chain of commerce.

Steve, I think the vast majority of the stuff we bought/buy from vendors based in the US was non-returnable goods imported from Japan, which means that our money rewarded those vendors for stocking the right merchandise and encouraged them to import more of it. So sure, that helped the home office. But I think you have to get stuff directly from a Japanese vendor (some of which have US distribution, like Kinokunia) to ensure that your money is going straight into the pockets of those who are responsible for the stuff itself.

I don't mean to diminish or dismiss the efforts anyone makes to support legitimate business, just throw out a reminder that it's not as simple and sound-biteable as most people think.

Another great debate from 1978:
Subs or dubs?

Subs are BOMB and dubs are DOPE. Slip me some skin, maaaan!

Hey, Patrick, is it difficult to break up your blogs and archive them more often? Your page takes for-fukn-EVER to load and I'm on a high-speed cable modem. I can't imagine what poor ol' Steve-Dial-Up-H has to go through...

Sorry, I'm image-heavy and not user-friendly by nature, but I'll see what I can do...

Just to remind people and contribute to history, recall that Books Nippan was the American branch of Nippon Shuppan Hanbai KK, a reportely major book distro company. their MAIN job in the US was servicing other mom and pop bookstores, food stores, etc. Pony Toy-go-round was the American arm of Uchino International, again a reportely major Japanese distro and jobber Bandai had a partnership with them in those pre-Power Ranger days. When Mitsuwa was Yaohan back in the day, that was owned by Uchino INternational, then the company got into trouble by overexpanding, got bought by a Hong Kong company, I think THEY got out and I don't know who owns Mitsuwa now...

And the sub or dub debate...hey, I got into this shit watching them in raw, untouched Japanese, so what do I care? Sub is preferred, Dub depends on how well the transliteration is done. for example, I i know some call Pokemon a hack job but I found it quite entertaining. OTOH, One Piece...urg. WHY is that considered a good show?!

And of course I set my transliteration bar high, judging everything by Star Blazers...

Crooks Nippon.


Patrick....are these scans from an actual 1978 Toei program?! Great stuff.

Now, now, Patrick, Books Nippan was cool until Yuji Hiramatsu left to return to Japan late 1985. $9 for a 1000 Yen book was a fine price in 1983.

Of course, given the exchange rate at the time they made INSANE profit margin on their stuff, roughly 200% profit over cost. And that's what killed them later, when the Yen got stronger, they decided to maintain the same markup and margin no matter what the exchange rate was, and suddenly you've got $18 for 1000 Yen books, and that was indeed Crooks in action.

I know, this is all boring as hell to you, but what can I do? context, brutha, context :)

It's my firm belief that Mario Van Peebles flashes a Books Nippan Animation Fan Club Card during the humorous "credit card scene" in the Clint Eastwood Grenada war film HEARTBREAK RIDGE.

I will pay cash money for a DVD of English-subtitled Manga Matsuri trailers, and I don't give a good golly gosh darn whether it makes Baby Jesus cry or not.

Re: DVD...You and me both, Cap'n Dave....

Cap'n Dave,

I'll hand over a DVD-R to you at AWA, hillsy too, if he can make it. And yes, these are scans from a Manga Matsuri program I bought at Nakano Broadway for 500 yen.

Patrick, are you talking about the Toei Animation Festival trailers on the Kamen Rider Bootleg Movie Collection?


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