Cover this issue was of Grey, whose anime adaptation Grey: Digital Target was due out from Western Connection. The art was provided by Kev Walker, who I think had made the leap from Games Workshop to regular 2000AD contributor at this point, but hadn’t started to make waves in US comics yet.
Articles included Jim Swallow on Yoshihisa Tagami’s Grey, Peter J Evans on Pioneer’s entrance in the UK video market and finally a “Beat” Takeshi Kitano interview with Jeremy Clarke. This was the beginning of the entrance of live action material entering the magazine, a balance that was tricky to handle and whose influence can still be seen in the make up of NEO magazine today. It’s no coincidence that Manga Video were behind the release of the first of Kitano’s films in the UK.
UK NEWS
- D-CONTanimeT, possibly the worst name of a convention ever, was due to take place in October in Birmingham. It would cost you £20 for the weekend.
- Jonathan Clements reported on a visit to London by Seikima-II. They are pretty much the main influence behind the satire of Detroit Metal City. This band of supposed demons from Hell had been in town to record a Folk album.
- From Kiseki: Star Blazers Vol. 1, Ambassador Magma Vol. 6-7, Urotsukidoji, Return of the Overfiend III (bumped for cuts yet again!)
- From Manga Video: Cyber City Oedo Vol. 1, Guyver Vol. 7, Devilman Vol. 2
- From Western Connection: Samurai Gold, Grey: Digital Target
- From Anime Projects: Urusei Yatsura Vol. 3, Genesis Survivor Gaiarth Vol. 2
- From Pioneer: Tenchi Muyo Vol 1 & 2, Moldiver Vol 1 & 2.
US NEWS
- RAFM were producing minatures for RTG’s mecha RPG Mekton.
- Trish Ledoux had con reports on:
- Anime Expo (Guests of Honour were Izumi Matsumoto, Nobuteru Yuuki and Scott Frazier).
- Anime America (GoH were Akemi Takada and Go Nagai). Hilarious quote given the state of UK anime convention programming since ’05 – “In a move that remains puzzling, the bulk of AA’s programming included features already available. Something a little more difficult to find might have been more appropriate“
- San Diego Comic Con (where Rumiko Takahashi and Buichi Terasawa were in attendance)
- From Streamline: Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy, 8th Man After, LILY-CAT
- From US Manga Corps: Genocyber 2 & 3, Rhea Gall Force, Gigantor 30, Project A-Ko 3
- From Central Park Media: Animated Classics of Japanese Literature
- One notable manga launch – Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Rebel Sword
A couple of other notes from the issue:
In the letters page there is fan art from a Tony Mines. Is this the Tony Mines of Spite Your Face Productions? I know he frequents the AniPages Daily boards, was he a Manga Mania reader as a young ‘un? Here’s the art:
Secondly, the retailer who was promising “Hard to Get” anime in the last issue had a full page advert this time and we got a list of what their “Hard to Get” anime were…
At least two of the videos actually were anime. Namely Star Warrior The Legend Begins and Star Warrior The Adventure Continues. Which were terribly dubbed adaptations of Locke The Superman.
The others though, were Joseph Lai’s Korean anime knock-off shows from IFD films – Captain Cosmos, Cosmos Conqueror, Saviour of The Earth, Silver Twilight, Solar Adventure, Space Transformers, and Thunder Prince.
There was one other title, Falcon Seven, which I couldn’t find on IFD’s film list. And of course searching for it just brings up Birdman/Harvey Birdman sites (Phil Ken Sebben was called Falcon Seven in the original series). As it’s listed among the IFD titles and the Star Warrior titles are seperate, I’m guessing it may just be another IFD title under a different name. Anyone with experience in the dollar bin VHS market know this title?
When I was 15. 16, or whatever it was, that switch over to focusing on live-action stuff totally put me off MM and I stopped buying it after a couple of months. Was it that change of focus that killed it, or did people really just buy it for Akira?
I think its fortunes were actually tied to that of Manga Video themeselves (thought Akira ending certainly didn’t help). Remember it eventually came back after its downward spiral in ’96 when Titan Books bought the title in ’97, before finally relaunching as Manga Max.
Ah, I’d forgotten it got relaunched. I’m not entirely sure now when I stopped buying it now! Would have been around ’97, the same time Super Play ended, as I haven’t brought a magazine since. Definitely saw the end of Akira, and remember them replacing it with the US Dirty Pair for a while, and then didn’t they scrap serialising manga all together?
Never brought Manga Max because the village news agent didn’t stock it. In fact I recall most of their magazines being months – even years – out of date! Damn, I’m reminiscing now!
Super Play ended in 1996. I remember that because the last issue came out the week I went to Minami Con 2 and picked it up on the way down.