In case I haven’t mentioned it already, the issues of Manga Mania that I’ve been talking about so far are ones my younger brother had bought, and I’d only been reading the Akira strips. He stopped buying them and this issue was the first I actually bought myself, mainly for Akira. I think I’d bought the Boxtree Ranma books just before or around the same time, so I was already on the slippery slope.
Looking at the issue now, it’s not a particularly strong one. Very little authorial voice (most articles are attributed to Manga Mania) and a couple of the articles are just not worth bothering with at all.
ARTICLES:
- An overview of Kosuke Fujishima, particularly Oh My Goddess and You’re Under Arrest. Interview with him, translated from Kappa Magazine.
- A look at Robot Carnival, tying into a Collector’s Card set being released in the UK. Yes, we got the merchandise and not the film.
- An overview of Ryoichi Ikegami’s career.
- An article on the Johnny Mnemonic film!
- Trish Ledoux’s column was about shoujo manga.
JAPAN NEWS:
- Gatchaman OAV
- Ghost Sweeper Mikami: War In Heaven film
- Key The Metal Idol
- Tenchi Muyo TV
- Yamato: The Next Generation
- Suikoden: Demon Century
UK NEWS:
- From Kiseki: Star Blazers #3, Return of the Overfiend III #3, Robotech #3, Ambassador Magma #5, Adventure Duo #1 & #2
- From Manga Video: Guyver #10, Crying Freeman #5/6, AD Police File 2
US NEWS:
- From Viz Video : Fatal Fury
One final note. There’s an advert for a shop selling garage kits and that reminded me there used to be a degree of overlap between modellers and anime fans. I think I encountered imported Gundam model kits years before I encountered the anime. Did that crossover increase in proportion when the boom happened? Or did it stay the same size and is now a much smaller part of the “hobby”?