Vol: 1 No: 1 Fall 2013 About the Front Cover “Science fiiction and together? Sounds like Gundam to me. Or at least, 80s era gigantic mecha with a realistic bent. A proper sense of their massive scale is a must.” About the Artist

Brian A. Caslis is an artist living in Oregon. You can find more of his work athttp://greencoat7.tumblr.com/ Vol: 1 No: 1 Fall 2013

Hello, and welcome to Breaking It All Down: The Zine! This is meant as something of a companion volume to my web-series “Breaking It All Down”, as occasionally viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/CountZeroOr. Part of the point of the show was to discuss books and movies, as well as discussing video games from a literary SF perspective. Over time, I realized that while I had a certain degree of engagement with younger audiences, older SF fans generally prefer to take in discussion of SF in writing, rather in videos, with a few exceptions. In particular, has started up his own YouTube channel, which thus far he’s been using to upload some of the older video clips he did for The Science Fiction Channel (back before it contracted a case of Syfy). Consequently, if I wanted to get in a dialog with older fans who might be interested in my views on SF, it would have to be in writing. However, in this day and age of blogs, combined with the fact that I’m already writing for a web page – Bureau42.com, I would, theoreti- cally, have that covered, I thought. Then I went to OryCon 34 and got to meet Yalow, Jerry Kaufman, and Susanne Tompkins, and went to the great panels they did on the history of SF fandom, and in particular, the panel on fanzines (a panel that was sadly under-attended). These panels inspired me to start seriously considering doing a fanzine. With a fanzine, I could cover material that isn’t necessarily conductive for a video review (or which would be hard to review as a video review), and it would let me cover material in a less structured fashion then Bureau42’s fairly rigidly reviews. So, before I get any further, I might as well introduce myself. I’m 27 years old, and I’ve been a of science fiction since I first learned to read. I taught myself to read not through Dick & Jane, but through computer magazines like Byte Magazine, and juvenile SF novels like Journey to the Mushroom Planet and Robert Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. My interest in science fiction and served as my gateway to other aspects of the wider world of geek culture. SF and fantasy games like Final Fantasy & Metroid drew me into video games because they were science fiction. SF and Fantasy anime films and series like Akira, , and Record of Lodoss War drew me into anime fandom. Themes and concepts taken from SF, Fantasy, and supernatural horror drew me into interest in heavy metal music. Further, the more fantastic elements of martial arts films, particularly the Wuxia sub-genre, drew me into a fandom for martial arts films. Now that I’ve gotten across who I am, and where I’m coming from, in terms of fandom, hopefully you’ll come along with me as I docu- ment my explorations through SF and Fantasy. - Alexander Case P.S. Why title the zine, and my show “Breaking It All Down”? Well, I’m a fairly analytical guy. When it comes to the books & comics I read, the films and shows I watch, and the games I play, I like to metaphorically take them apart, to see why they work, or don’t work, for me the way they do, and to see how they’re made. It helps me appreciate the work better. Also, to my knowledge nobody’s using that title for an internet review show or a fanzine, so there’s that. I’d also considered using a title that was a variation on “Prisoners of Gravity”, in homage to the Canadian TV show, but I was slightly concerned that it’d come across as too derivative. Editorial:

After this year’sFighting WorldCon, there was the a lot of discussionAging about Literaryof SF SF fandom Fandom by people who have been in fandom longer than I have, and how the attendees of SF conventions are generally getting older, with fewer new faces showing up, and the existing faces growing older, a fact made more significant with the passing of this year. So, this got me thinking. As I mentioned in my introduction, I’m 27. Last year, when I attended Kumoricon, Oregon’s local anime, I was generally the oldest guy in the room. However, when I went to Orycon just a few months later, I was one of the youngest guys in the room. This made me think – how do we get more people my age or younger interested in Literary SF, and to get them active in fandom. As I thought, I looked over the Hugo Awards nominees of the past few years, as the winners of the Hugo Awards can sort of be considered to be a good rubric of what is “mainstream” in terms of the kinds of works that fans at SF conventions are consuming. The winners of the Hugos might not be universally beloved by fen, but enough people read them or watched them and enjoyed them to get them nominated. I came to realize that if younger audiences are to start getting involved in literary SF fandom, there needs to be programming at literary SF conventions that provides some crossover with their existing fandoms, which means in turn that members of fandom, particularly those which are active in attending and organizing conventions, need to explore some new frontiers of SF, or re-explore some older frontiers that have been left alone for some time. Some steps have been made in this direction already. In 2009, graphic novels got their own category with the Best Graphic Story category, allowing creators of comic books and hopefully in the future, , to stand on their own, without getting lost in the shuffle of the Best RelatedW ork category, alongside non-fiction books and music. However, anime, manga, and video games generally haven’t gotten their due. To be fair, and won a Hugo Award for the excellent film . Yoshitaka Amano, who has been highly acclaimed for his art design for the Final Fantasy series of video games, his illustrations for the Vampire Hunter D novels, and the art for the Japanese editions of Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga, shared a Hugo Award with for the book Sandman: The Dream Hunters. So, considering that anime conventions trend to younger average attendees then literary SF conventions, and keeping in mind that literary SF fandom and anime fandom used to heavily overlap, before they effectively broke up, how do we get the two fandoms back together to get that fresh blood back into fandom, without hav- ing to resort to Parent Trap-esque hijinks? In short, the answer is cross promotion. You have to get attendees of anime conventions interested in picking up science fiction novels, you’ve got to let them know that literary SF conventions are there once they’re hooked, and once they’re in the door, there’s got to be programming about anime so the anime fans that you’ve brought in have something to do if there isn’t any other programming that interests them.

Image from the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. To do this, literary SF conventions basically have to put a working relationship together with their local anime convention, if there is one. For the programming at the anime convention, the focus needs to be on introducing people to literary SF, in the contest of the bigger picture of anime and manga. Talk about works that have been adapted from western SF novels to anime, such as Starship Troopers, the Tales of Earthsea series, and Lensmen. If the adaptations aren’t very good, bring that up, and talk about why the originals are better. Then, from there, also talk about works of SF and fantasy that anime fans might enjoy, based on anime they might like, which would lead into the question and answer part of the panel. This means that whoever is on this panel really needs to know their stuff about not just SF and Fantasy, but also anime. Additionally, at this panel, the panelists need to take advantage of the opportunity to also promote the SF convention, in addition to any booth the con has in the dealer’s room. Also, you need to price admission to your convention at a level that younger fans can afford. Ideally, pre-regis- tration prices should be low enough that if an attendee at the con’s local anime convention goes online to pre- register, they can either afford registration on their own. Ideally, it would advisable to compare prices for pre- registration with the local anime convention, so prices escalate at about the same rate, and if the con can afford it, prices are also comparable. WorldCons are something of an exception to this, due to the expense of running a WorldCon, in addition to all the expenses that need to be incurred for the WorldCon bid. Still, if there is room there to lower admission, especially with pre-registration 2 years out, it would probably be worth it to do so. That said, I’ve already seen outreach done to get younger fan’s interested in going to WorldCon. At 2012’s Port- land Retro Gaming Expo, supporters of the Spokane WorldCon bid were at the convention, actively handing out fliers to promote the bid. Not just sitting behind a booth, but actively promoting the bid. I like to think this made a difference with Spokane getting the 2015 WorldCon, but we’ll see in two years. Once you’ve gotten anime fans to the convention, you then need to have a track for them. The goal is to get them to attend the programming you have normally, take part in panels, and make new friends among SF fandom. However, if there’s a slot or several slots where there isn’t anything they’re interested in seeing, there needs to be something for them to do aside from getting food. Frankly, the only thing worse than not getting new fans to start coming to conventions, is getting them to come to conventions only for them to have a terrible time, leave, and then complain about it to their friends later. All of those things will take a lot of work, and a lot of time. However, it’s worth it. The only thing more exciting than finding someone else who shares a common interest is getting someone else as excited about what you’re interested in as you are. The greatest gift we, as fans, can give to fandom and SF, is more fans. Five Gateway SF & Fantasy Anime From After 2000 Anime is a medium that can be daunting for newcomers. In the early days of anime fandom, the amount of anime that came to the US was relatively limited, and focused on shorter works, whether feature films likeAkira and Ghost in the Shell, or direct to video shows called “Original Video Animations” or OVAs, like Bubblegum Crisis. Later on, as the anime fandom grew beyond SF fandom, and there became more of an industry around bringing Anime and Manga (Japanese comics) to the US, more shows, and longer shows started getting released on VHS and eventually DVD, to the point that now, most of the anime series that are released in Japan in a year become legally available in the US, often being legally streamed with subtitles by sites like .com or within the week of the shows airing in Japan. Consequently, with such a wide variety and vast quantity of material getting brought out every month, going be- yond SF and fantasy, what’s a fan to do if they don’t want to dive in the deep end? Fortunately, I’m here to help. I have five SF anime series from after the year 2000 to help you get into modern anime, along with two books that will help you proceed from here. Why after 2000? Well, that’s basically the point where SF Fandom effectively left anime.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Ghost in the Shell is one of the anime franchises that has some name recognition among SF fandom. The original manga, written by Masamune Shirow, and the film adaptation by are among some of the earliest depictions of transhumanism in com- ics and film, respectively. The TV series is a reboot of the series, in a universe where series protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi (or The Major), did not meet the film’s antagonist, the Puppet Mas- ter. Instead, the story focuses on The Major and the other members of Public Security Section-9, a counter-terrorist organization in the Japanese government, as they take on threats against Japan, from within and without. Because the story is going at a longer length then the film or the manga, the members of Section 9 get considerably more development, and the themes get developed in a more organic fashion then in the film. Oshii’s film has a problem of literally stopping the plot so two characters can have a philosophical discussion, to the point that when The Major steps out of character to discuss a philosophical point, Batou points out that she sounds like a completely different person. Because each season of the TV show is 24 episodes long, the show can give the important points of each season the time the audience needs, without bringing the narrative flow to a grinding halt. The show is an exciting, excellently animated and brilliantly written series, and definitely The members of Public Security Section 9 worth checking out. From Promotional Materials for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig Both seasons of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the sequel film, Solid State Society, are available for streaming on Hulu, and are also available on DVD. Marika Katou, the protagonist of Bodacious Space Pirates. Image is a still from the show.

Bodacious Space Pirates It’s likely that at some point we, as fen, have wanted to tell someone about a really enjoyable book, or show, or comic, but in the process of telling them about it, we find ourselves having to pre-emptively defend the work for some reason or another. Maybe the cover is risqué in a fashion that doesn’t reflect the subject matter, maybe the jacket text makes the book seem like something it isn’t, or maybe the title itself isn’t great. Such is the case for Bodacious Space Pirates. This show is a very well written space opera adventure show, and one that has something that most live action SF shows have been missing for the past few years – a sense of wonder and adventure. Frankly, the only SF show I’ve watched in the past few years that made me excited to see characters go on an adventure is Doctor Who. With New Battlestar Galactica, while I enjoyed the show, and liked some of the commentary it go into, there was no sense of adventure there for me. I missed Stargate Universe due to not having cable when that aired, so I can’t say if that would do it for me. The plot follows Marika Kato, a normal high school girl on the colony world Sea of the Morningstar. One day she finds out her absentee father is in fact a space pirate (well, technically a privateer, but I don’t think there’s a Japanese word for privateer)… and he’s also died of food poisoning, leaving his ship and his letter of marque to her. Marika, with the help of her mother (another former space pirate), and her friend Chiaki Kurihara (the daughter of another space pirate), must learn the ropes of piracy in deep space. However, Bodacious Space Pirates was a blast. In spite of a title which makes the show seem like a juvenile escapee from the ‘80s, the show has an interestingly built universe, with well thought out tech, and exciting characters. It’s a show that not only passes the Bechdel Test, but the Mako Mori test with flying colors. I enjoyed this show enough that I’d consider it not only a great gateway series for someone who wants to try anime for the first time, or a good re-entry series for someone who hasn’t watched anime in a while, but I’d consider it one of the most entertaining and exciting science fiction TV series in the past 5 years. Bodacious Space Pirates is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.com, Hulu, and at TheAnimeNetwork.com. The show is also currently available on DVD. Lupin III: The Woman Called is a show that some older SF fans who watched some anime back in the day might be familiar with. Most SF fans with a passing familiarity with anime might remember the franchise from the Hayao Miyazaki filmLupin III in , and they might have seen some of the episodes of the TV show as well. After about three seasons of the TV show, the franchise went on what can best be described as an odd sort of hiatus, with no actively airing TV show, but with an ongoing almost-annual movie series. The later episodes of the show and the films took a much more absurd and, well, cartoony take on the character then the original manga. Fujiko’s femme fatale traits were downplayed (and in some cases she became more of damsel in distress), and Lupin became more of a buffoon. However, in 2012, a new Lupin TV series aired, taking the story back to when Lupin’s crew first met, and focusing not on Lupin, but on his rival and romantic interest, Fujiko Mine. The show also took the franchise tonally back to its roots, with Lupin and his companions being willing to use deadly force if needed during their heists, and Fujiko had keeping her sexuality in her arsenal alongside her gun. Box Art for ’s Release of Lupin III: A Woman Called Fujiko Mine That said, while the TV series and the movies made Lupin III into a series aimed for kids (com- plete with Lupin crossing over with the YA detective anime Detective Conan, released in the US as ), this work is much more mature in its tone. There is a considerable amount of female nudity in the show, starting from the show’s opening credits. There’s enough nudity here that I wouldn’t be surprised that if you included the opening credits, this show would have more nudity then the first thirteen episodes of Game of Thrones. Thus, if this is something that you would consider to be a problem, be warned. Still, if nudity in an animated work isn’t a problem for you, you’ll find this to be an exciting TV show. Oh, and the SF elements? Well, Lupin III is no stranger to taking on mad scientists of various stripes, and this show is no exception. Lupin III: A Woman Called Fujiko Mine is available for streaming on Hulu, and is currently out on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Alchemist is a show that is meant for young adults, but turns out being more mature, without being adult, then it has any right being. The show follows two brothers, Edward (Ed) and Alphonse (Al) Elric, who are being raised alone by their mother, after their father left them. The two brothers are also learning alche- my, which in this show is a more flashy form of magic. It’s still matter transmuta- tion, but pretty much any matter can be changed to almost anything else. However, there is one immutable rule of magic, the Law of Equivalent Exchange: In order to create something, you must destroy something of equal value. After the Elric brothers’ mother dies, the two decide to attempt to bring her back using Alchemy. Things go horribly, horribly wrong. What they get back is a horrific abomination that isn’t their mother, and in the process Al’s body is destroyed. Ed manages to bond Al’s soul to a suit of armor in order to save him, but in the process, Ed has to sacrifice several limbs. After Ed’s childhood friend (and romantic interest), Winry Rockbell, builds him a set of automail (basically super-advanced prosthetic limbs), Ed and Al discover the existence of the “Philosopher’s Stone”, an object with enough power that they can use it to get Al’s body back, and restore Ed’s lost limbs. The story that ensues has a brilliant mix of comedy, tragedy, and action, without resorting to the absurd power escalation that shows like Dragonball Z, , and Bleach get into. There are two different anime series with the “Fullmetal Alchemist” name. The Promotional Art for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood showing Ed & Al. first, simply titled Fullmetal Alchemist, was broadcast while the manga was still running. Consequently, the showrunners ran out of material and ultimately created their own ending to the show. They also released a film as an epilogue titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa. After the manga finished, the franchise was still popular, so a second series, titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was released, which hews closer to the events in the manga. Both shows are available for streaming on Hulu and Netflix, and are available on DVD.

From Right: Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (aka Wild Tiger), Barnaby Brooks Jr. (aka Bunny), from Tiger & Bunny. Image is a still from the show.

Tiger & Bunny In the past, when Japanese creators tried to do anime, the results were hit or miss. On the one hand, we got shows like Bio- Booster Armor Guyver and Devil Man, which managed to do the ‘90s gritty violent superhero stuff, but with better art, before characters like Spawn and the members of Youngblood were gleams in the eyes of Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld, respectively. On the other hand, we got stuff like Dragonball Z and Kinnikuman (aka Ultimate Muscle), which started as a sendup of American superhero comics (complete with the death revolving door), before going incredibly over the top, but ultimately failed to make it work, mainly by putting the focus on the action and combat, and often ignoring the heroism. However, on the gripping hand, we have shows like Tiger & Bunny, which recognizes that superheroes don’t just need to be super, they also need to be heroic. The show is set in a world where people with superheroes fund their efforts through corporate sponsorships. The main character, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, is a veteran superhero, with the ability to amplify his abilities 100 times, for a period of five minutes, and the superhero name of “Wild Tiger”. However, he has to juggle his job as a superhero and his secret identity with the difficulty of being a single parent to a daughter who doesn’t know that her dad is a superhero. After his contract is sold to a new sponsor, Kotetsu is forced into a team-up gig with a young up-and-comer with the same ability, Barnaby Brooks Jr., who is nicknamed “Bunny”, due to his costume’s ear-pieces and Barnaby’s penchant for jumping around in combat. As I mentioned earlier, Tiger & Bunny is a show that remembers that superheroes need to be heroic – if they aren’t, then they’re just superhumans – still impressive beings to be sure, but not what I’m looking for in a superhero show. Consequently, this also makes this show one where the show can go several episodes with plenty of super powered action, but without any fights with supervillains. By comparison, most US superhero animated series still have to fit supervillains into the show in some form or another. The universe created for Tiger & Bunny is as well developed in the show’s 24 episodes as Marvel & DC’s universes, with a rich history of past heroes, and plenty of potential for future works in this universe, if we get a second season of the show, or further development in manga. If you’re a fan of superhero comics or movies, and want to try out anime, this is a great place to come in. Tiger & Bunny is available for streaming on Hulu and on ’s Neon Alley service. The show is also available on DVD.

Book Picks – The Rough Guide to Anime & The Rough Guide to Manga This is slightly cheating, as both books are in the same series. However, both books serve as very good introductions to anime and manga, respectively. Each book gives a history of the medium, a run-down of some of the useful terminology to know when learning about the medium, including the different kinds of genres and sub-genres of anime, and a list of 50 recommendations of TV shows and films to check out. Unfortunately, Penguin, the publishers of the Rough Guides series, has decided to stop the series and let the existing books go out of print. However, these two books are the perfect primer on anime and manga. All the information you need to get started down the road to watching or reading and enjoying anime and manga is in these two books. Book Review The Notenki Memoirs by Yasuhiro Takeda

As near as I can tell, it’s something of an unwritten rule of fanzines that in your issue, you need to talk a little bit about fandom. As with this is- sue I’ve been discussing anime, now is as good a time as any to review a book about science fiction fandom from a Japanese perspective. The Notenki Memoirs is a look at the anime industry and Japanese SF fandom from the inside, by one of the founders of the anime studio . GAINAX is probably best known for the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (which the cover art is taken from), however fans of SF who might have had a passing encounter with anime back in the day might know them from their first film, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. In the book, Takeda recounts how as a college student in Osaka he got into SF fandom, met the people who would form GAINAX, and organized the first few Daicons, and with them Daicon Film, before ultimately becoming GAINAX. The book focuses less on the creative side of things, and more on the organizational side. This works fine – Takeda makes it clear that his involvement in fandom has been on the organizational end, helping to keep things running, once people decide what they want to do. This leads to my main complaint about the book – Takeda does a good job recounting individual anecdotes when it comes to running Daicon and GAINAX - the “what’s” - and he’s not in a position to talk about the “whys” so the book doesn’t cover those, which is fine. However, this also leaves the “hows” – which the book doesn’t cover. I can reasonably assume that organizing a massive convention like Daicon takes a lot of work, and that most people at the ground level might not know how things go together, but someone at a higher level like Takeda would be able to see the big picture, and provide some insight in what it takes to Cover art for the US Edition of the Notenki Memoirs, published by organize a convention, even if it’s a Japanese convention. We don’t get ADV Manga. that. For that matter, we don’t really get any glimpse into what it takes to manage an like GAINAX, or what he does to keep productions going. It’s entirely possible that Takeda’s current job basically consists of running around and putting out fires all day. However, that’s not totally clear. At no point in the book do I I could answer the question “What does Yasuhiro Takeda do and how does he do it?” That said, I did enjoy the book, and some of the various anecdotes are particularly interesting (such as his story about meeting a then- unknown Steven Seagal on the streets of Osaka, wearing traditional Japanese dress, complete with clogs). I have a fault with ADV’s publication of the book – the book cover (front and back) heavily plays up the Neon Genesis Evangelion con- nection, complete with a giant picture of Unit-01 from the show on the cover. While I understand why they did this – GAINAX is synonymous with Evangelion the same way that Studio Ghibli is synonymous with Totoro – it still feels misleading. As it stands, Evangelion is discussed for about five pages in the book, and this discussion is focused less on the production of the show, and more on the tax problems that GAINAX encountered after the show became a blockbuster success, and the company received a massive influx of cash… that they failed to properly pay taxes on because they never had to deal with this much money in their accounting before. The book is currently out of print – US anime translator and distributor ADV published the English translation of the book, and they’ve since filed for bankruptcy. Note: The title is taken from a short live- that the founders of GAINAX did in their early days,Kaiketsu Notenki, a parody of a Japanese live-action superhero TV show. In the parody Takeda played the title character. Movie Review Pacific Rim

Japanese Movie Poster for Pacific Rim. This fight doesn’t actually happen in the film.

Giant Robots, or mecha, on the big screen, have tended on the side of the “Real Robot” – ultra-realistic robots (or robots that are intended to be ultra-realistic), fighting other fairly realistic robots, or CGI or special effect monstrosities. They show up in forms like the Power Loader from Aliens, or the powered armor from Avatar, or occasionally stuff like the robots from Robot Jox. Recently we’ve gotten a slight shift with the Transformer movies, where the robots are technically super-pow- ered, though director Michael Bay has tried to make the designs of the Transformers err on the side of the real- istic. However, if one wants creatively designed robots fighting monsters, super robots, if you will, you’re pretty much stuck with anime, or the Tokusatsu genre – in particular shows like Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, or their Japanese counterparts. These shows tend to be fairly long, and tend to stretch out their plot arcs with filler to make sure they get their 24 to 52 or more episodes. Occasionally there’s a show that justifies their longer runtime, and uses it to give their supporting cast some additional character development, and develops their plot further, without the need for padding. I bring this up because Pacific Rim is a film which takes a story that would take a super robot anime 24 episodes to tell, boils it down to 133 minutes, and manages to do this without hurting the main plot. Yes, the story is fair- ly simple: Giant Monsters, called Kaiju, have started emerging from a rift in the Pacific Ocean, and have started attacking major population centers. To stand against this threat, the nations of the world united and developed Jaegers, massive robots designed for one purpose: to fight the Kaiju, and to win. After years of costly conflict, the council responsible for combatting the Kaiju has launched a dubious plan to wall in the Pacific Coast, and shut down the Jaeger program. While the wall is completed, the last four Jaegers are stationed in Hong Kong, to continue to defend the world until the wall is completed. There, Marshall Stack- er Pentecost (played by Idris Elba), recruits back veteran Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket (played by Charlie Hun- nam), the former pilot of Gipsy Danger, to return to piloting the mech. Raleigh had left Jaeger piloting after his brother, who was also his co-pilot, was killed while fighting a Kaiju. This was particularly traumatic to Raleigh as Jaeger pilots synchronize their minds together through a process called “drifting” – meaning that Raleigh felt his brother’s death. Raleigh must overcome his own trauma, as well as help his rookie co-pilot, Mako Mori (played by Rinko Ki- kuchi), who has some Kaiju-related baggage of her own. Meanwhile, Pentecost has his own plan – to launch a counter-offensive against the Kaiju, seal the rift, and save the world. What makes this film work, really work, is how well it’s presented visually. Each of the Jaegers and Kaiju we see in the film is visually distinct. You can always tell what Jaeger you’re looking at, whether it’s in broad daylight, or at night, or in a rainstorm, or . Not only are they colored differently, but their silhouettes are different. Further, director Guillermo Del Toro does an excellent job of using small pieces of detail to expand on the story. A great example of this is with the husband and wife pilots of Cherno Alpha, the Russian Jaeger. Going solely from the script, these characters are very minor, with little to no dialog. However, through camera framing, costume design, and direction, these characters ultimately end up stealing almost every scene they’re in, without having to speak a word of dialog. Further, the universe as a whole is well thought out and realized, with one exception – the Kaiju Wall. In the film, at several points there are clear doubts that the Wall will work… and then, very early in the film, we see it fail. We see a Kaiju just plow through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man. I realize that in universe numerous politicians and contractors had sunk a massive amount of time, effort, and money into the wall. Still, in that circumstance, the Wall fails outright at stopping a Kaiju, and a Jaeger succeeds. Why continue with the wall at that point? Other than that, I absolutely enjoyed the film, and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an entertain- ing and exciting SF film. I strongly suspect that Pacific Rim will get deservedly nominated for a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form next year. Portland Retro Gaming Expo Con Report So, why am I talking about a convention that focuses on retro video games (games from the Sony PlayStation Era and earlier) in a fanzine that’s meant to cover science fiction and fantasy stuff? Well, the long and short of this is, last year I attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and at the convention I was pleasantly surprised to see stuff promoting Spokane’s bid for the 2015 Worldcon. I want to say that there were people at the conven- tion actively promoting the con and handing out fliers, rather than simply having stuff on the flier table, but my memory may be deceiving me. Anyway, I like to think that efforts at Portland Retro Gaming Expo might have helped get out the vote for the Spokane Worldcon. So, since my general theme for this issue is fighting the aging of fandom by reaching out to younger generations, why not talk about Portland Retro Gaming Expo, when it’s a good example of success in this regard?

I got to the con about an hour before the first panel I wanted to go to, so I checked out the show floor. The show floor is di- vided into two chunks. There’s the vendor half and the arcade half. The vendor half has various vendors selling retro game related art, retro video games, and other related stuff. This half of the floor this year also featured a replica of KITT, from Knight Rider, along with two Entertainment Systems set up with the NES Knight Rider game.

Replica of KITT - taken by the Author

The arcade half has a selection of old consoles – primarily NESs, Atari 2600s, and Gen- esises (Geneses?), with a selection of games available to play, along with a slew of arcade and pinball machines, set to free play. The pinball tables include old titles, like Black Knight, and new titles, like the Tron: Legacy and pinball machines (with the Star Trek pinball machine featuring material from Star Trek: Into Darkness). The Portland Retro Gaming Expo basically has three “tracks” of content. First is the industry professionals’ track, which has panels by people who developed various retro games and systems. The second track is the collectors’ track, which has panels by people who are well known as collectors, with advice on how to build your collection. The third and final track is the “expert fans’” track, with interviews with fans who are basically well known for being fans who are knowledgeable about games, and who usually have podcasts, fan sites, or web series. This year, I focused on the Expert Fans track. This is in part due to my not having much interest in collecting. I do buy old retro games and retro-clone systems to play them on. But I don’t collect for the sake of collect- ing. The games I get are games I want to play, and if I collect anything, I’ll collect series – for example, I spent last year focusing on games in the Castlevania series which were released on consoles, and I managed to get pretty much all of the home Castlevania games I didn’t already have, for the systems that I own. The only games I didn’t get were Castlevania: Dracula X (which nobody had a copy of ) for the Super NES, and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine CD, because I don’t own a PC Engine CD. The other part of this is most of the professionals’ track is scheduled in the middle of the day, which is normally when I eat lunch. Consequently, if I’m going to go to those panels, I have to skip lunch, or drop one of the panels from the fan track that I want to go to. Last year, this decision was easier to make as there were vendors at the convention which were video recording every panel and selling DVDs. Sadly, there was no such luck this year.

Anyway, I started out the first day going to the panel for The Game Chasers. The Game Chasers are Shady Jay, Billy Hudson, and Eight-Bit Eric, and they have a series on YouTube, which is a little like American Pickers, but not staged, and focusing on retro video games. The three were joined on stage by two other YouTubers – the Happy Console Gamer, and AlphaOmegaSin. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an episode ready for the convention, so instead they had a Q&A Panel. It was certainly enter- taining, but a new episode would have been nice. After the Game Chasers Panel, I took my lunch break. Normally, I wouldn’t discuss this. However, there was something of From Right: AlphaOmegaSin, HappyConsoleGamer, Billy, Jay, Eric an odd occurrence when I went to lunch.

When I go to conventions at the Oregon Convention Center, I usually get lunch at the Burgerville near the center, as it’s the closest place you can go to eat near the center that isn’t in the center (and consequently won’t charge you $3.50 for a 16 ounce fountain drink - I’m not kidding). Burgerville is a local Oregon fast food chain which has good food (about on par with Carl’s Jr. or better), combined with locally sourced ingredients, bio- degradable packaging, and all that other good stuff. However, a majority of attendees from another convention decided to go to Burgerville at about the same time. Thus, when I got there, there was a line going from the counter at Burgerville, through the restaurant, out the door, and part-way around the building. This is the longest line I’ve ever encountered for a Fast Food place. To be clear, I’ve been to San Diego Comic-Con, which has a higher turnout, and yet didn’t have restaurants with as long a line. Anyway, I ended up standing in line for about half an hour. After lunch, I went to the live recording of an episode of the Retronauts podcast. The podcast focuses on the history of retro video games. I’ve been a fan of this podcast for a while, and it was great to finally see these guys live. At the convention this year was one of the two main hosts, Ray Barnholdt and Bob Mackey, along with the hosts of the Watch out for Fireballs! podcast, Kole Ross and Gary Butterfield, and another person whose name I didn’t catch, so I couldn’t write it down. This episode focused on the launch of the Sega Genesis, which international readers might know as the Sega Mega Drive. I asked a question during the Q&A segment, so The Retronauts Panel when this episode goes up at Retronauts.com, you may be able to hear my voice.

This year, I decided to go to the Geek Trivia event put on by Cort Webber and Bobby Roberts, who used to host a “geek culture” oriented podcast titled Cort and Fatboy. Among other things, they helped heavily promote the Trek in the Park events that were held in Portland, which were adaptations of various Star Trek episodes, done as stage plays, and performed in a park. My team did not win at Geek Trivia, but not for lack of trying. Of the 20 questions in the match, we did well with about the first 11 or 12, before falling apart later on.

From Right: Cort Webber, Bobby Roberts I wrapped up the evening with going to the Retro- games Roadshow panel, hosted by Steve Lin, Chris Kohler, Frank Cifaldi, and Pat “The NES Punk” Contri. Chris Kohler is a columnist on the Video Games industry for Wired, and a frequent guest on Retronauts, due to his excellent knowledge on history. Lin and Contri both have very com- prehensive video game collections, and both are very knowledgeable about history. Lin and Cifaldi also run sites curating collections of video game design docu- ments and lost prototypes, respectively. There was some amazing stuff brought to the panel. Someone had wine glasses that were gifts from Sega of America’s Christmas party the year Sonic From Right: Steve Lin, Frank Cifaldi, Pat Contri, Chris the Hedgehog came out, in addition to a Nintendo Koohler promotional baseball for their Ken Griffey Jr. Base- ball game for the SNES – that was signed by Ken Griffey Jr. Joe DeCuir, one of the designers of the Atari 2600 was also there, with the design documents for the system’s TV interface chip. This was a definite “This belongs in a museum” moment, as there’s been a lot of discussion in homebrew Atari 2600 development over how that chip works, most notably with the book Chasing the Beam, which discusses the 2600 and how it works. The following Sunday I only went to two panels, both held by game critics. The first was Pat Contri’s panel. He showed a collaboration episode he did with an internet critic going under the handle of ThatOneVi- deoGameGuy, who does a show called The Comple- tionist. The episode reviewed the action horror game Castlevania, for the NES. The episode was very well written, and is definitely worth watching. The show did justice to Castlevania, which is one of my favorite games for the NES, and is part of one of my favorite video game franchises. The episode can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92wJ38Ht2VA

Pat”The NES Punk” Contri Finally, I went to Joey “Roo” Desena’s panel. Roo does three shows on video games – The Video Game Years (which covers the history of video games year by year), 16-Bit Gems (which focuses on quality games for 16-bit systems like the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, and, to a lesser extent, the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine), and How Games Work, which discusses how various pieces of video game technology work. This particular panel covered some of the subject matter from the last show. After reviewing some of the material he discussed from earlier episodes of the show (particularly how Microsoft’s Kinect and Nintendo’s Wii Remote and From Right: Me, Joey “Roo” Desena Zapper work), the panel went into some new mate- rial, and particularly how the Power Glove peripheral for the Nintendo Entertainment system worked, or didn’t work, as the case may be. Specifically, the device basically was supposed to work based on sonar. The user would put three sensors on their TV, and the sensors would transmit ultra-high frequency sound to a speaker/micro- phone in the Power Glove, which in turn would transmit ultra-high frequency sound back, showing where the Power Glove was in relation to the sensors, and what button inputs were being sent back. However, considering that this was the ‘80s, the unit was being built by Mattel, and the Power Glove was selling for much less than $100, the sensors just weren’t sensitive enough for them to be accurate. The panel was also attended by DeCuir, who went into discussions with Roo and some of the attendees about the Atari 2600, as well as the technological de- velopments of consoles after the release of the 2600. More than anything, this kind of made me wish I hadn’t had to miss DeCuir’s panel, as his interest in the various other aspects of gaming appealed to me, and I’m glad he was such an active participant in the convention.

Joe DeCuir Before wrapping up, I should briefly get into what I picked up at the con. One of the booths had a selection of imported Super Famicom games, so I picked up the Japanese version of Fatal Fury Special, along with a pro wrestling game called Super Fire Pro Wrestling. From some grab bags, I picked up the PlayStation 2 game The Mark of Kri (a fantasy action-adventure game), along with Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf for the Sega Genesis, and the Rad Racer II for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After the convention, I also picked up a Nintendo 3DS, and two games for it in the Shin Megami Ten- sei (or MegaTen for short) franchise of role-playing games: Shin IV, and Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers. The franchise is an urban My Haul fantasy-horror series, with the main series being known for its apocalyptic tone (the first game is set during the apocalypse, and later games are set in the aftermath). I’ll probably end up doing a more in-depth article about the Shin Megami Tensei franchise in a later issue. Book Review - The Demolished Man A while back I decided that I wanted to read every single Hugo Award winning novel which I hadn’t already read. So, I went and added the complete list of Hugo Award winning novels to my Goodreads list, and then continued to make my way through the list as normal… which mean that I wouldn’t get to the Hugo Award win- ners for quite some time. Cut to now. When the Sword & Laser Podcast & Book Club made The Demolished Man their pick, I decided that now was as good a time as any to let some of this classic SF cut to the head of the line, and for me to take a look. Further, with my decision to start this fan- zine, I also figured that now would also be as good a time as any for me to share my journey, and my thoughts on these books as I made my way through. So, to put some disclaimers out of the way, I realize that The De- molished Man, by Alfred Bester, is a classic, and as a 27-year old fan, entering the world of people who have been involved with fandom far longer then I, and with the distinct possibility of people reading this who were able to actually meet Bester when he was alive, I have to tread lightly. That said, if you’re concerned that I’m is going to tram- ple all over the first Hugo Award winner for Best Novel and gripe about how much I don’t like it, you have nothing to fear, as I enjoyed The edition of The Demolished Man I read this book immensely. for this review. For as long as I’ve enjoyed Science Fiction, I’ve also enjoyed mystery novels, and later police procedurals. Thus, when I came into the book cold, and I discovered that this story wasn’t just an interesting Science Fiction novel, but a police procedural as well, I was hooked. This story was brilliantly plotted, with a well-structured plot that works perfectly. Indeed, this book is definitely a police procedural, like the later TV shows Colombo and later Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The story is less about the reader trying to solve the crime, and more following the detective as he tries to solve the crime. What makes this all the more interesting is the prevalence of psychics in the story’s universe, with Lincoln Powell, the shamus working this case, being a psychic cop. However, the ability to read minds, even just surface thoughts, is not a magic bullet. Evidence taken from psychic reads aren’t admissible in court, which means detectives must use physical evidence and witness testimony to solve crimes – which is great, and a logical societal development in a world where psychics are relatively common. Also, as someone who had seen most of Babylon 5 before reading this, it was interesting to see how psychic soci- ety as depicted in B5 and their governing bodies could be considered a dark mirror of the world of The Demol- ished Man. Demolition is basically Death of Personality. PsiCorps is a more totalitarian version of the Psychic Guild, and so forth. I only have one real complaint about the book. Towards the end of the story, the story’s antagonist, Ben Reich, is revealed to be someone with great psychic potential, and someone who could effect the turn of the universe. However, this revelation feels like it comes right out of the blue, and it feels unnecessary. Reich is a murderer, and we later learn also a latent psychic. Those facts, combined with the resources at his disposal as a filthy rich tycoon, means that he’s clearly a sufficient threat, without burdening him with a horrific and terrible destiny. Still, if, for some reason, you haven’t read this book yet, it’s definitely worth checking out – especially if you’re a fan of Babylon 5. Contact Me! I’d love to read your Letters of Comment on this issue. If you want to submit a letter of comment, E-Mail me at [email protected], with [Letter of Comment] in the subject line, so I know what it is. I’ll be attending OryCon in November, so you can look forward to Con Reports from that conventions next is- sue. Hopefully I’ll see some of you at OryCon. If you see me, please say Hi and let me know you read the Fanzine. It’ll be nice to know somebody read it. You can also find my other writings at SF at Bureau42. com. I’ve also been appearing on the Bureau42 Podcast, available through the iTunes store – look for the Master Audio Podcast Feed. Finally, I post all of my videos on my blog at http:// countzeroor.wordpress.com. Thank you very much for reading my first issue. The next issue should (knocks on wood) be out in Decem- ber.

The logo was done by Tora Stark, and you can find more of her work at http://toraillustration.tumblr.com/.

That would be me.