Protoculture Addicts #93 Contents
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PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS #93 CONTENTS ANIME NEWS NETWORK’S PROTOCULTUREプ ロトカル チャ ー ADDICTS 45 Issue #93 ( September / October 2007 ) 48 14 SPOTLIGHT 14 SCHOOL RUMBLE Shounen vs Shoujo Romance ❙ by Carl Kimlinger 20 ROYAL COLORS The Story of Saiunkoku ❙ by Bamboo Dong 26 BECK ANIME STORIES MANGA PREVIEW Sample file Interview with Greg Ayres 45 AIR 41 Psycho Busters & Brina Palencia ❙ by Jason Green ❙ by Bamboo Dong 48 CODE GEASS ANIME WORLD ❙ by Miyako Matsuda ANIME VOICES 69 Under The Radar 52 D.GREY-MAN ❙ 4 Letter From The Editor ❙ by Miyako Matsuda by Brian Hanson 5 Page 5 Editorial 54 GHOST HUNT 68 The 10 Best Mecha 6 Contributors’ Spotlight ❙ by Miyako Matsuda Shows You’ve Never 98 Letters 56 HATARAKI-MAN Seen ❙ by Miyako Matsuda ❙ by Daryl Surat NEWS 59 MY-OTOME ❙ by Miyako Matsuda 7 Anime & Manga News REVIEWS 92 Anime Releases 62 LA CORDA D’ORO ❙ by Miyako Matsuda 77 Manga 94 Related Products Releases 66 NODAME CANTABILE 83 Anime 96 Manga Releases ❙ by Miyako Matsuda Air © Visual Art’s / Key / Angel Seekers. Code Geass © Sunrise / Project Geas • MBS. Character design © 2006 CLAMP. School Rumble © Kobayashi Jin / Kodansha • Marvelous 3 Entertainment • Sotsu Agency • TV Tokyo. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ANIME NEWS NETWORK’S Hello again, Protoculture Addicts! プPROTOCULTURE ロトカル チャ ー ADDICTS You may have noticed that this month’s issue is a little late finding its way into your Issue #93 (September / October 2007) hands; you found yourself scouring the magazine rack at your local bookstore, week after week, wondering where your bi-monthly PA fix was. Why are we late this time? E d i t o r i a l S t a f f ANIME VOICES The answer is simple. Publisher / Advertising Convention season. Christopher Macdonald [CM] ( [email protected] ) Every summer, we – meaning the staff of both Protoculture Addicts and Anime News Network – find ourselves hopping all over America (well, okay, Baltimore and Southern California, Editor-in-chief / Production Manager Claude J. Pelletier [CJP] respectively) to cover the year’s biggest anime conventions. This year, Anime Expo, Otakon ( [email protected] ) and San Diego Comic-Con all fell within the same month – meaning we were on the road Managing Editor more than half of the month of July. I slept in hotel beds more than my own. Zac Bertschy [ZB] For most people, conventions are a chance to unwind, see your friends, buy some mer- Associate Editor chandise in the dealer’s room, attend some informative panels, check out the latest industry Bamboo Dong [BD] acquisitions and maybe catch a glimpse of some brand-new anime. For the press – and the Contributing Editor / Translator industry as well – convention season is a nonstop whirlwind of browbeating labor. We’ve Miyako Matsuda [MM] got to attend every major panel, cover every major event (and a lot of the minor ones), Assistant Editor interview everyone at the show who’s worth talking to, do the requisite post-show drinking Valérie Cools [VC] and schmoozing, and then wake up the next day and do it all over again. This year, things were extra complicated thanks to Anime News Network’s brand-new video content, which Interns Natalie Khor, Steven Thach, Gary Thompson had our video editors (along with PA associate editor and on-camera personality Bamboo Dong) up until 6am every evening. There’s fun to be had, surely, but it’s a heck of a lot of C o n t r i b u t i n g W r i t e r s hard work, and everything – and I mean everything – else gets shoved aside to focus on Jason Green, Brian Hanson, Carl Kimlinger the task at hand. [CK], Theron Martin [TM], Carlo Santos [CS], Daryl Surat After San Diego Comic-con, which concluded at the tail end of July, your faithful PA staff – jetlagged, bloodied, bruised and beaten after a solid month of airports, airplane food, L a y o u t starchy hotel linens, second-rate hotels, and several gallons of cocktails each, still had a Claude J. Pelletier mountain of work left to do on Protoculture Addicts…Sample hence why we were file a wee bit late Istvan Pusztai (cover, 14-28) this time. C o v e r Still, there’s a lot to look forward to in this issue. Freshly-minted contributor Carl Kimlinger Provided by FUNimation. School Rumble © lets us in on the secrets of love shonen style, Brian Hanson ponders why heady anime like Kobayashi Jin / Kodansha • Marvelous Enter- tainment • Sotsu Agency • TV Tokyo. Mind Game never seem to get licensed for US release, and Bamboo Dong takes us on a tour of Japanese literary history with The Story of Saiunkoku… all that plus the usual truckload S p e c i a l T h a n k s of content you’ve come to expect from us. Jason Alnas, Anne Armogida, Jeff Bowring, Bob Brown, Kevin J. Carney, Evelyn Dubocq, Our next issue, due this Holiday season, is special: it’s Protoculture Addicts’ 20th anniversary, Susan Hale, Lance Heiskell, Erik Jansen, Bill and we’re celebrating in style. Look for some fun exclusives, a look back at the last two de- Lai, Osamu Maseba, Chris Oarr, Peter Payne, Tamara Shumate, Eddie Stemkowski, and cades of PA, and a big fat article on the history of Protoculture Addicts’ namesake, Robotech. Richard Tong. Although I’ve only produced a handful of issues of this magazine and I register as barely a blip in the magazine’s history, it’s an honor to be working for the only anime magazine in How To Reach Us English that can claim to have been around since 1987. We’re really excited about the 20th P.O. Box 143, Station B anniversary issue, and so should you be! Montreal, QC, Canada, H3B 3J5 Once again, consider this a heartfelt apology for the lateness of this month’s issue. We’ve P.O. Box 507 Champlain, NY 12919-0507, USA healed our wounds, gotten a decent night’s sleep, sobered up thanks to months of intensive rehab our collective will of iron, and we’re ready to attack the next issue head-on. See you www.protoculture-mag.com in 2 months! Letters & Comments: [email protected] Zac Bertschy Managing Editor, Protoculture Addicts 4 PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS #93 ANIME VOICES S U B S C R I P T I O N “PAGE FIVE” EDITORIAL Six (6) issues: $30 US/Can (in Canada add $1.80 GST; in Quebec add $4.19 GST & PST) Who actually buys all those Evangelion figures with the different color variants, the mildly or $45 US overseas. For First Class / Air Mail different poses, the different points of articulation, and the limited edition props? Who subscription add $10 in the USA and $35 overseas. Send check or money-order to one of actually needs every single Rei figure that comes out, just because she’s wearing a differ- the addresses above. Payment by credit cards ent pair of panties? Who actually buys all those novelty items, like the music boxes and & PayPal available from the web site: www. protoculture.ca/PA/PASub.htm. For inquiries the postal service stamps? email to [email protected]. Me. That’s who. D I S T R I B U T I O N I am the sucker who buys every new Evangelion toy that comes out. I am the sucker who In Canada: Cosmix ((514) 744-9494), Disticor owns at least five different recordings of “Cruel Angel’s Thesis.” I am the sucker who has ((800) 668-7724), Marché Clandestin (www. all the Evangelion sheet music books, and taught myself to play “Thanatos” on the piano, mcanime.com), Middleman Media ((416) 203- 2926), Sci-Fi Anime (www.sci-fi-anime.ca), the guitar, and the violin. Snap! ((416) 588-4006). In U.S.A.: AAA Anime (www.aaaanime.com), Anime Nation (www. If I was forced to wear a dorky Nerv patch on my clothes for the rest of my life as a scarlet animenation.com), Complete Strategist ((212) letter of shame, I’d probably deserve it. 685-3880), Diamond (www.diamondcomics. com), Disticor ((800) 668-7724), Kinokuniya That’s why I will be pacing my room until someone announces the North American license (NY: (212) 765-7766, SF: (415) 567-7625), Made for the new movies. As a self-proclaimed Neon Genesis Evangelion fanatic, I can’t help In Japan (www.madeinjapan.us), Nikaku Animart (www.nikaku.com), Right Stuf (www.rightstuf. it, and I know I’m not alone. There are legions of us out there, of varying ages and anime com), Robert’s Anime Corner Store (www. tastes, who all fell into the Great Eva Trap of 1995. I still remember staring at the TV screen animecornerstore.com), RPV ((714) 671-1270). In England: Esdevium (011 44 125226116). For with my mouth agape, gawking at the first time I saw Unit-01’s watery eye blinking in the more information: www.protoculture.ca/PA/PADis. reflection of a building. I still remember that bone-chilling moment when it went berserk htm or email to [email protected]. and started eating the Angel. And really, what Eva fan doesn’t remember that moment in L E G A L I N F O R M A T I O N End of Evangelion when “Komm, Susser Tod” starts playing, amidst a sea of crosses? Protoculture Addicts is a bimonthly magazine Come to think of it, the first time I ever posted on the ANN forums (back in the day, when dedicated to Japanese animation and manga and the Internet was a simpler beast, without the treachery of Youtube and LOLcats) was in is published by: Protoculture, Inc.