Month: June 2008

Legendary Idol Eriko

Asagiri Rei Asagiri Rei in rehearsal

The 1st episode of Legendary Idol Eriko has recently been made available made available as a bittorrent.
This old TV anime is the story of  Tamura Eriko, daughter of Tamura Kousuke, a music production executive who is killed in a car crash in the first episode. Eriko becomes an idol singer, while her uncle, who wants to take control of the company, tries to block her career.
Actually, in the first episode, the most interesting character is Eriko’s rival, Asagiri Rei, who is seen at rehearsal belting out a song while wearing a tiny tight top and a skirt so short one can almost see her underwear. After giving Eriko a chilly look, she goes off clinging to the arm of Eriko’s father. Though she’s only 15, Rei is not an innocent-looking girl.
The opening credit song is sung by the *real* Tamura Eriko, an idol singer, while the rehearsal and end credit song are sung by Maiko Hashimoto, who on the limited evidence so far seems the better singer.  The “Unchained heart” song is really not bad.

18 Years of Anime Fandom

When having a clear-out this week I was reminded that it is now 18 years since I became an anime fan. In 1990, Liverpool, England, there was a SF convention where a substantial amount of Japanese animation (sent over as a box-full of tapes by American anime fans) was shown. Ranging from Studio Ghibli to tentacle porn, it made quite an impression.  After seeing anime like Nausicaa for the first time, I was converted. As much as anything, this event kick-started the creation of a British anime fandom, and in the months and years following, there arose magazines such as Anime UK, anime conventions devoted (unlike current US conventions) to the screening of raw tapes and fansubs, and various clubs.

Those bitten by the bug were prepared to seek out their anime from anywhere, at any price, and at any tape quality, with or without subtitles. I’ve just thrown out scores of sheets of distribution lists of tapes once held by other fans – this is how one got most of one’s anime tapes in those days.  Strange as it may seem today, I once paid good money for some obvious bootlegs, and once paid over £30 for a half-hour retail tape. Quite a lot of my earliest  fan tapes were without subtitles, and  despite this got played over and over.

Once commercial releases started to appear, there was  criticism of the quality of dubs and the choice of releases. Manga Video got the kind of bashing earlier directed at Carl Macek’s Streamline in the USA. The argument over subs vs. dubs ran and ran, dying down only with the advent of the multi-lingual DVD

Being an anime fan seems less social these days – no need to write to anybody for fansubs, and no particular need to attend a convention in order to buy stuff or keep up with what’s new. The biggest change is in the volume of  video which can be acquired with little cost or effort.