Protoculture Addicts

PA #90 // CONTENTS A N I M E N E W S N E T W O R K ' S ANIME VOICES 4 Letter From The Publisher

PROTOCULTURE¯:paKu]-PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS 5 Page 5 Editorial Issue #90 ( January / February 2007 ) 6 Contributors Spotlight SPOTLIGHTS 98 Letters 14 TOP 9 ANIME DIRECTORS NEWS We all know that Hayao Miyazaki is the best anime director. But, if you look beyond him, 7 Anime & Manga News who are the best anime directors in Japan? 92 Anime Releases (R1 DVDs) By Christopher Macdonald (with ANN & PA Staff) 94 Related Products Releases 18 THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA 96 Manga Releases A look at Haruhiism and fandom’s newest sweetheart By Carlo Santos MANGA PREVIEW 22 VISUAL NOVELS 42 To Terra Exploring the source of the increasing popularity of anime series based on visual novels ANIME WORLD By Bamboo Dong 66 Ceci N’Est Pas De L’Art ANIME STORIES Is All Anime Art? 44 LE CHEVALIER D’EON 68 Interview By Miyako Matsuda & C.J. Pelletier With Susumu Hirasawa 46 BLACK LAGOON Sample70 file The Modern Japanese Music Database Part 38: FAQ 23: Where Do I Start? By Miyako Matsuda Japanese Music In America 48 GAKUEN HEAVEN 71 Fantasia Genre Film Festival 2006 By Miyako Matsuda The Glamorous Life Of Sachiko Hanai 50 ORIGIN: SPIRITS OF THE PAST 72 Montreal World Film Festival 2006 By Miyako Matsuda & C.J. Pelletier Report, Nagai Sanpo, Kamome Shokudo, Taiyo no Uta, Uchoten Hotel 52 N.H.K. NI YOUKOSO! By Miyako Matsuda & C.J. Pelletier REVIEWS 54 OBAN: STAR-RACERS 77 Live-Action By Miyako Matsuda & C.J. Pelletier Touch 58 UTAWARERUMONO 78 Manga By Miyako Matsuda 81 Other Related Products 63 xxxHOLIC Books By Miyako Matsuda 83 Anime

3 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER A N I M E N E W S N E T W O R K ' S Well, it’s been fun, but it’s time to call it a day. PROTOCULTUREPROTOCULTURE¯:paKu]- ADDICTS Oh, sorry, I’m not saying its time to stop publishing Protoculture Addicts, but rather it’s time for Issue #90 (January / February 2007) me to stop writing the news for Protoculture Addicts. Over the past two years, through a good deal of experimentation, I’ve come to a conclusion about how the news section in Protoculture E-mail: [email protected] Addicts should be written. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I’m not the right person to be Web: www.protoculture-mag.com writing it. I enjoy doing the news, but I simply don’t have the time to do a good job.

Starting with Protoculture Addicts issue #91, Zac Bertschy, who is also the executive editor at E d i t o r i a l S t a f f Anime News Network, will take over the job of Protoculture Addicts’ news editor, and will also Publisher take on numerous other roles. Zac, Claude and all the other contributors will work closely to Christopher Macdonald [CM] continue to improve PA issue after issue, and make this the best damn anime magazine in Editor-in-chief / Production Manager North America. Claude J. Pelletier [CJP] So what will I be doing? That’s a common question, a lot of people ask me what I do at Anime Contributing Editor / Translator News Network now that I no longer write the news (Jonathan Mays has been news editor at Miyako Matsuda [MM] ANN since mid 2006), no longer write reviews, and pretty much don’t write anything other than Associate-Editor the occasional forum and blog post. Bamboo Dong [BD] Well, I’m not completely out of the editorial loop at ANN and PA, I still collaborate with the Jonathan Mays [JM] editors to decide what kind of content we should be publishing, but beyond that, the creation of Interns the content is entirely in the hands of the editors and the writers. Specifically, when it comes to Valérie Cools [VC] Protoculture Addicts, I’m part of what we call the “editorial board.” Once or twice per issue we Natalie Khor meet to decide what features will be written, what will go on the cover, and what kind of changes Steven Thach need to be made since last issue. And then the editors do all the work we discussed. C o n t r i b u t i n g W r i t e r s My principal job is to provide Claude and Zac with the resources they need to produce a great Zac Bertschy [ZB], Sean Broestl [SB], magazine. That’s right, I’m the money man. I work with the distributors to get the magazine into Paul Fargo [PF], Brian Hanson [BH], Carl more people’s hands, and I work with the advertisers to get their ads in front of the right eyeballs. Kimlinger [CK], Mikhail Koulikov [MK], I don’t do this for the love of the money though, I do it for the love of the publication, and Theron Martin [TM], Mario A Rumor, Carlo Santos [CS], Justin Sevakis [JS], because getting the money is the best way that I can contribute to making it a great publication. Sample file James S. Taylor [JT] It’s hard to believe, but I started working on ANN almost 7 years ago now. At the beginning, George Phillips and I did everything; we wrote the news, we wrote the editorials, we wrote the L a y o u t reviews, we set up the forums, we even configured the server. Over the years since then, ANN Claude J. Pelletier, Istvan Pusztai (pp. 1, 14-25) has grown from a staff of 2, to a staff of over 20 (most of whom are part time or freelance C o v e r though), and I’ve continued to shed my responsibilities to people who can do them better than I, while I focus on the tasks that I am best suited for… even if they aren’t the tasks that I enjoy Provided by Bandai Entertainment. The Melan- choly of Haruhi Suzumiya ©2006 Nagaru the most. Tanigawa • Noizi Ito / SOS Dan.

The result has been particularly rewarding. Even though I no longer create the majority of ANN’s Advertising & Business Issues content, I still think of ANN as my creation (Ironically, I didn’t even create it, Justin Sevakis Christopher Macdonald deserves credit for that). And the better the site gets, the more proud of it I get. [email protected] Five years from now I hope to look back at Protoculture Addicts and be able to say the same. Already I’m proud of what we achieved in the past two year, but as I say almost every issue, S p e c i a l T h a n k s there’s so much more that we can achieve. Hopefully you’ll be with us in five years too! To Jason Alnas, Anne Armogida, Jeff Bowring, Bob Brown, Evelyn Dubocq, Su- Christopher Macdonald ○○○○○○○○ san Hale, Lance Heiskell, Erik Jansen, Bill Publisher, Protoculture Addicts Lai, Osamu Maseba, Chris Oar, Rod Peters, Last issue we published an interview with Katsumi Kawaguchi and accidentally attributed the Tamara Shumate, Eddie Stemkowski, and article to “Dormcat.” Dormcat’s real name is Chih-Chieh Chang. We apologize to Mr. Chang for Richard Tong for their help and support.

PA #90 // ANIME VOICES PA using his online handle in the article credit.

4 PA #90 // 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 I’ve always enjoyed teasing my fellow anime fans. I enjoy ribbing them about their viewing habits, the way GST; in Quebec add $4.19 GST & PST) or $45 US overseas. Send check or money-order to: they spend their money, and countless of other silly stereotypes. It’s not that I don’t care—on the contrary, Protoculture, P.O.B. 1433, Stn B, Montreal, Qc, it’s because I do care. It’s the old, “I’m making fun of you because I love you” deal, and as sappy and Canada, H3B 3L2. Payment by credit cards & projectile vomit-inducing as it sounds, it’s true. I do love anime fans a great deal. That, and I’m one of the PayPal available from the web site: biggest nerds I know; if I can’t make fun of myself, then I may as well cease laughing forever. www.protoculture.ca/PA/PASub.htm. It’s all in good fun. D I S T R I B U T I O N Still, I find myself missing anime fans. True, it’s a growing phenomenon and more than ever, people are In Canada: Cosmix ((514) 744-9494), flocking to indulge in this unique medium, with its crisp artwork, its NBC Primetime-worthy storylines, and Disticor ((800) 668-7724), Marché Clandestin its deliciously addictive theme songs. Even so, I still miss the anime fans of yore, the ones I grew up with, (www.mcanime.com), Middleman Media the ones who introduced me to this facet of my life. Not that they don’t exist; I’m firmly convinced that the ((416) 203-2926), Sci-Fi Anime (www.sci-fi- anime.ca), Snap! ((416) 588-4006). In U.S.A.: kinds of fans that I grew up admiring and looking up to are the kinds of swell folk that read this magazine AAA Anime (www.aaaanime.com), Anime Na- today. The kind of folks who know what it means to be a fan, who know the feeling of wanting to buy a DVD tion (www.animenation.com), Complete or a book, just to give a stranger in another country the round of applause s/he deserves. Strategist ((212) 685-3880), Diamond (www.diamondcomics.com), Kinokuniya (NY: I was talking to one of my friends online a few weeks ago, and he typed to me sadly, “Where have all the (212) 765-7766, SF: (415) 567-7625), Made good anime fans gone?” In Japan (www.madeinjapan.us), Nikaku Animart (www.nikaku.com), Right Stuf “What do you mean?” I typed, one eye trained on the instant message window, the other on the Rumbling (www.rightstuf.com), Robert’s Anime Corner Hearts episode that was playing in the background. Store (www.animecornerstore.com), RPV “I just don’t feel the love anymore. The camaraderie. The warm fuzzies I used to get when my friends and ((714) 671-1270). In England: Esdevium (011 44 125226116). I watched anime together or one of us got a new DVD. You know?” I did know. I felt it myself too, but I had assumed it was just the cynic in me that enjoyed sulking in corners L E G A L I N F O R M A T I O N and bemoaning the world around me. He had a point, though. When I was a young fan, the people around Protoculture Addicts is a bimonthly magazine me were an amazing, heartwarming type of fan. They enjoyed getting together to watch anime or argue dedicated to Japanese animation and manga and over its merits, beaming when a favorite director made something new, or lighting up when they found is published by: Protoculture, Inc., P.O. Box someone else who shared their hobbies. They boasted about how much money they spent on anime—not 1433, Station B, Montreal, Qc, Canada, H3B 3L2. how much they were getting for free. They were living, breathing proof that anime fans were social crea- Protoculture Addicts is ©1987-2007 by tures, who enjoyed the company and discourse that others offered. Protoculture, Inc. • No part of this magazine can be reproduced without permission from the pub- When did that change? lisher, except for review purposes. Now more than ever, I get forlorn emails and instant messages from old friends who tell me that they’ve Protoculture Addicts acknowledges that the stopped goingSample to anime conventions, file an activity that they once loved. They tell me that they feel out of place copyrights and trademarks of the materials men- at places where the attendees are getting younger and younger, and the video rooms are getting sparser tioned or pictured herein remain the property of and sparser, with more and more people going for the sake of partying and seeking easy hookups. their respective owners and does not seek to infringe on their rights. Whenever possible, Just last night, a friend stated that he was thinking of withdrawing from fandom, because he no longer felt copyrights of the pictured products are listed at welcome. He disliked being attacked by fellow fans who chastised him for his opinions, and harassed him the bottom of each page and they are used here online. He was part of the old school of thought that believed that the fans supported the actors, directors, solely for information, promotion or review pur- creators, and animators, and that they did this by voting with their dollars and spreading the good word to poses (what is know as “fair use”). • All rights to their friends. They were part of a new school of thought that believed that production companies should articles & artwork revert to their respective writ- bow down to fans. The school of thought that declared that anime existed for their righteous consumption, ers & artists upon publication • Contributors are responsible for their views which are not neces- and that creators should thank them for lending their precious time to follow a series that wasn’t quite sarily those of Protoculture Addicts • Spoilers worth their money. And if a domestic company marred one trivial detail on a cover for a product they Warning: This magazine contains important plot weren’t going to buy anyway? Boycott! details about several Japanese animation. Read- ers discretion is advised. Really? Did it really come to this? He was going to stop being a fan because of them? Legal deposit at Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales Screw those kiddies, I say. Let’s bring it back. Let’s bring back the days when anime fans could get du Québec & National Library of Canada, 2006. together and feel at peace and argue over continuity errors in Gundam, instead of bickering about fansubs and sniping at each other because someone disliked their favorite show. Let’s bring back the days when Printed in Canada • ISSN 0835-9563 going to anime conventions didn’t mean having to deal with crap from prissy snobs. Anime fans get enough flak from society—do they need to catch it from their fellow peers too? I L L U S T R A T I O N S ’ C R E D I T S ○○○○○○○○ I’m too young to stay jaded at a fandom that used to provide me countless hours of joy. Animage #328: 164; #334: 199; #336: 181; #337: 69, 197. Fantasia 2006 program. Kinema Junpo #1438: 59- This weekend, I’m going to have friends over and we’re going to marathon Evangelion, then argue about it 60, 207. All other illustrations come from promotional artwork, cover art or directly from the animation. later. And then we’re going to go to Home Depot and shop for cosplay supplies. Take that. Bamboo Dong, Associate-editor

5 THERON MARTIN Theron became involved with RPGs during his elementary school years, was an aficionado of the first wave of console and computer games, and got deeply into American comics beginning in his teen years, so it was only natural that he would eventually discover anime. Though his earliest encounters were with Battle of the Planets, he credits coming across Akira at a gaming convention in 1989 as the moment he truly “discovered” anime. His interest gradually grew over the ‘90s, but the purchase of his first DVD player at the end of 1998, which enabled him to start collecting his own hybrid DVDs, marked his true rise to the status of otaku.

Always something of an amateur movie critic, Theron began writing anime reviews first for associ- ates in the gaming community, and later for his own website, so he jumped at the chance to become an Anime News Network reviewer when they had their recruitment contest in the summer of 2004. Though he finished the contest as the #3 guy at a time when only two new reviewers were being sought, one of the original two selections proved unable to fulfill his duties, so at the beginning of 2005 Theron was called up to the “big leagues.” He’s been enjoying his duties for ANN and PA ever since.

While anime is one of Theron’s greatest passions, it isn’t his only one. He still reads more American comics than manga, loves studying history, plays board games on a weekly basis, and gets charged up every fall over fantasy football. He also devotes a lot of his non-anime free time to Dungeons and Dragons, including writing an average of 1-2 tournament scenarios a year for the RPGA (Role Playing Gamer’s Association) since the early ‘90s; currently his focus is on the international Living Greyhawk campaign. His ultimate dream is to become a published novelist, and one day he’ll actually get around to finishing and submitting the novel he’s been writing on and off for the past two decades. (But don’t hold your breath.)

Anime reviewing and RPG writing alone don’t pay the bills, though, so Theron’s training and trade is as a high school teacher. Currently he attempts to teach Algebra and Geometry to inner city kids in an urban school district. Though few of his students have the financial means to get much into anime, he promotes the hobby at school at every opportunity, even sometimes loaning out his own DVDs to budding enthusiasts. Sample file & OTHERS

Christopher Miyako Claude J. Pelletier Macdonald’s Matsuda left studied history, job (running a Japan in the wanted to be a librarian, but website and 80s for Califor- ended up publi- magazine nia, where she worked as inker shing a science- about anime) leaves him very little fiction fanzine named Samizdat (in and touch-up artist for Eclipse time for one of his favorite hobbies French), several Quebec Science-Fiction Comics, volunteered as translator in (watching cartoons). But lately he’s anthologies (in French) and, finally, an many anime conventions, sold her made a bit of time for three of his anime and manga magazine. He founded own artwork in art shows and favorite shows; Family Guy (season Protoculture Addicts in fall 1987 as a collaborated with Protoculture Robotech fanzine, but it quickly evolved 4), The Melancholy of Suzumiya Addicts magazine as contributing into the magazine it is now. In 2000, he Haruhi and Le Chevalier D’Eon. editor and translator. In 1999, she published Anime: A Guide To Japanese Why’s Vash here? Because this is moved to Canada to join the Animation, which is a 300-page how Chris feels when watching a permanent staff of Protoculture filmography of the first thirty years of the funny show that he really likes. Addicts. anime industry in Japan.

PA #90 // ANIME VOICES / CONTRIBUTORS SPOTLIGHT PA

6 PA #90 // NEWS / ANIME & MANGA NEWS ANIME & MANGA NEWS 30% of Pornographic Manga involves Children

According to a recent study by the Japanese National Police Agency, anime simulation games are terrible. Grown men manipulate childlike as much as 30% of pornographic manga in Japan features children little girls, themes of turning them into slaves to have one’s own involved in sexual intercourse. Based on a sample of 100 comics, sexual desires fulfilled being very common. “ out of 9000 adult comics, the agency found that 30 of them involved intercourse with children, five of those involving elementary school- Producers of lolicon material often argue that the Japanese age children or younger. The report does not specify the apparent constitution guarantees their freedom of expression in this matter age of the other children; the age of consent in Japan varies from 16 and that laws restricting these materials would be unconstitutional. to 18 in most prefectures, with the age of majority set at 20. Legally, Kondo however counters this stating that “The utmost priority of the a 19-year-old is a child. constitution is to guarantee fundamental human rights. I believe the freedom of expression does not allow for the depiction of little girls Regardless of the vagueness of the report, it is true that pornographic being violently raped, depriving them of their basic human rights.” manga featuring young children can be easily found in many Japanese manga and doujinshi shops. Many shops in Akihabara and elsewhere With certain exceptions, virtual child-porn is illegal in Canada, not only stock the material, but have it on display, explicit covers and where an Edmonton man was convicted of importing certain manga all, in their adult sections, along with other best selling adult manga. titles last year, as well as in the United States. An American man Store visitors need not be looking for it to see it. was convicted on charges related to virtual-child-porn in 2006, however he was also in breach of his parole and in possession of The agency is campaigning to get adult comic stores to voluntarily real child porn, there have been no convictions exclusively for enact measures to protect children. In September, 2006, the agency virtual child porn since current law was enacted in 2003. The requested that cellular phone companies automatically block access previous US law banning virtual child porn was overturned by the to adult websites on cell-phones that are sold to children, as opposed Supreme Court in 2002. to only blocking the access when a request is made by parent. Several companies voluntarily enacted measures or are in the process of enacting measures as a result of the request. SampleAnime: file A Guide To Japanese Animation In the 1990’s, Interpol and the United Nations reported that as much A Filmography of the first 30 years of Anime! as 80% of the world’s real child-porn originated in Japan, where the This comprehensive vol- material was legal until new laws were enacted in 1999. The new ume covers all the anime laws however did not outlaw “virtual child porn” like lolicon anime produced in Japan during and manga. the Sixties, the Seventies CASPAR, (CAmpaign to StoP the abuse of Asian children and to and most of the Eighties — safeguard their Rights) a Japanese non-profit-organization founded including not only the mov- in 1989, is campaigning for regulation regarding the depiction of ies and OVAs, but also the minors in pornographic magazines and adult video games. Kondo TV series! Written by An- Mitsue founded CASPAR in 1989 after learning of the child prostitution drea Baricordi, Massi- issues in Thailand. The organization has built around 20 schools for miliano De Giovanni, An- children in Thailand and the Philippines. It was officially recognized drea Pietroni, Barbara as a legal non-profit-organization in 2003 and has 770 members Rossi, and Sabrina Tunesi. nationwide. CASPAR believes that child prostitution and child Protoculture, 2000. 320 pgs, B&W, 1238 notices, fully pornography have common roots and that by regulating child indexed. ISBN 2-9805759-0-9. $25.00. pornography, the fight against child prostitution will be aided.

Kondo states, “For 5 or 6 years we have been collecting material, and www.protoculture.ca the so called bishoujo adult anime magazines and bishoujo adult

7 Anime and Manga on Cell Phones

Just like you can check the weather In December 2006, NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest cell-phone and read the daily news, now you service provider paid $34.5 million to acquire 3.8% of Kadokawa can read manga and watch anime Holdings, parent company of Kadokawa, one of Japan’s largest on your cell phone too! In the manga publishers. As a result of the deal, NTT DoCoMo will be later half of 2006, consumer able to provide its subscribers with Kadokawa titles on their cell demand for cell-phone based phones. manga surged in Japan. And it’s Closer to home, ADV Films and not just people on the go who its sister company, Anime are reading manga through their Network, have partnered with cell phones. Japanese Zoovision to bring anime clips to publishers have found that most Sprint and Cingular phones. Full of their cell-phone readers are episodes are broken down into actually reading from home. chunks that can be watched one Surprised? They were. The other after another, for $5 or so a potentially surprising fact is that most month. of the cell-phone manga readers are women who are attracted to the anonymity and privacy of cell-phones. No one but them, and Tokyopop has a deal in place with their cell-phone company, need know about the racy manga they uClick, which allows Verizon and like to read. Sprint wireless subscribers to access a number of original So just how popular is it? Impress R&D estimates that cell-phone English titles such as Princess Ai manga sales are worth twice as much as computer-based manga and Dramacon. sales; $20 million between March 2005 and March 2006, compared to $10 million for the computer based manga.

YouTube and Japan people uploading movies from Japan. They also offered to send a Sampledelegation file to Japan to meet with JASRAC. In early February, YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen went to Japan to speak with The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, YouTube averted lawsuits from North American companies in October, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) about all the pirated Japanese when it gave numerous major companies a small stake in the company. TV shows that end up on YouTube. While Google agreed to pay $1.65 billion in stock to become the majority owner of YouTube, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and The problem isn’t just with anime. In October JASRAC sent YouTube Sony BMG each received a small stake in YouTube for “free.” Their a letter demanding that YouTube remove close to 30,000 videos from combined stake is currently worth an estimated $50 million. the site. YouTube complied and removed exactly 29,549 videos in what is believed to be the largest single purging of videos ever from What kind of effect this will have on the availability of fansubs and the popular website. other Japanese content on YouTube remains to be seen.

In December, JASRAC sent YouTube another letter demanding that Hellsing Delayed YouTube take appropriate action to limit future copyright Last month we featured the new Hellsing Ultimate OVA series, which infringements. Among numerous other safeguards, JASRAC asked is being released in North America by Geneon Entertainment. that YouTube pre-screen uploads, delete accounts used to upload Unfortunately North American and Japanese fans alike will have to infringing material and include a warning, in Japanese, about illegal wait a bit longer for more Hellsing goodness. Geneon Entertainment uploads. of Japan recently announced that the release of the third episode YouTube is already understood to be researching pre-screening would be delayed because they were behind on the production methods to help limit illegal uploads, and they also agreed to show schedule. Originally scheduled to be released on February 9, episode the warning about illegal uploads, in English and Japanese, to all 3 will now be released “later this year.”

PA #90 // NEWS / ANIME & MANGA NEWS PA