Kickin' it back old school: Anime Style

Back in December the Diva and I were in Richmond, Va attending the monthly meeting of the Japanese Animation Network (JAN). JAN was founded by my friend Roy back in the late 80's, and was, depending on the year, a local, regional, or national club. When Roy passed away, the club fell by the way side, but a couple of years back Roy's wife Cathy, decided to resume the meetings.

Since we live in North Carolina we don't get to come up for every meeting, but we drive up when we can. The meeting started by watching Star Trek: The Animated Series - The Slaver Weapon and The Eye of the Beholder. Both were excellent episodes, and the quality of the DVD was amazing. Then we switched over the Tenchi Forever - Tenchi Muyo In Love 2. If you're not familiar with Tenchi Muyo in any of its incarnations, its a zany "harem" comedy where several young women compete for the affections of a clueless teenage boy. Tenchi Forever is not that. Its the same characters who have essentially grown up. There is no slap stick comedy, no over the top space battles, and no sexual innuendo - but there is a sex scene so parents beware. Its as different from the OVA series and follow-ons, like Tenchi in Tokyo, as night and day.

Next we watched several Nelvanna shorts. A Cosmic Christmas, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, and Please Don't Eat My Planet. Let me just say that despite my love for Rock N' Rule, I'm thankful that Japanimation not Cananimation (Canadian Animation) has influenced modern American animation. I don't think I could tolerate Batman: The Animated Series or Avatar: The Last Airbender if the characters all had bell bottoms, giant hands, and looked like the funny animals out of a Max Fleischer cartoon.

The high point of the evening was watching several videos pulled down from You Tube which were fan subs. The first, "Ôkami to kôshinryô" or Spice and Wolf, the second, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun), and the third was Toaru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index). The last two were set in the same setting with the former being a prequel to the latter. I recommend all three series, but hope that when they are commercially available they're available as English dubs. Subtitles seem to work well for me with theatrical releases, but I often have a hard time following them on the smaller screen.