Issue #11, January 2017 Jose Sanchez was born and raised in Miami, Florida on March 10,1968,where he still lives today with his wife Aliana. At the age of six, he was introduced to fingerpainting. By first grade, he had picked up his first pencil, but it was not until the summer of 1977 when Star Wars hit the movie screens across America, that his imaginative spark was truly ignited! Like so many other people that were influenced by the cult phenomenon, he was too. So much so, that this led him to seriously explore and develop his talent for creating art further. As time has gone by and he has honed his skills, he has been notably influenced by the works of Science Fiction and Fantasy artists such as: Stephen Youll, Donato Giancola, Chris Moore, Tim White, Jim Burns, David B. Mattingly and Michael Whelan, to name but a few. He attended Lindsey-Hopkins Technical Education Education Center in Miami, Florida where he received a certificate in Commercial Art Technology-majoring in illustration and minoring in Graphic Design. Jose would ideally like to see himself one day working professionally in the motion picture industry as a Concept Artist. He had previously worked on a low-budget SF/Super Hero Animation flick titled: “Shadow Runner”, designing the individual character’s spaceships. “They tend to depend more on technology than they do on their own superpowers”. He is also interested in the publication and gaming markets. To one of his many credits, which have included several fanzine covers and one semi-prozine cover and interior artwork. Online at starwars.com on the Jan.15,2014 Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Best of the Year, Online edition: “AT- AT Driver” and in the Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Art Galaxy, March 2014 “ Djas Puhr-Settling The Score!” Also appearing in the official LucasFilm Star Wars Insider magazines, now being published by Titan Publications : “City Patrol”, issue #86, March/April 2006, “Oil Bath”, “Artoo”, “Pair of Jawas” and “Land of the Rising Suns” issue #148, April 2014, “Surveying the Situation”, Issue #154, Jan.2015, “Sinister Jawa Pair” and “The Real Dynamic Duo : C-3PO and R2-D2“, issue #156, April 2015 and the “T.I.E. Fighter Pilot Elite Tribute”, Issue #161, Nov.2015. Much of his art can be seen now at http://jose77sanchez.deviantart.com/gallery/ and efanzines.com. Contents Letters of Comment – 4 Submitted for Your Consideration: The Best SFF Anime of 2016 – 7 Submitted For Your Consideration: Notable Anime SF Fancasts of 2016 – 13 Haiku – 15 Letters of Comment Before we get into the letter, just to get this out of the way – I’m pretty sure I’m eligible for a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, and I would not object to a nomination if you felt like nominating me. Our letter this issue is from Lloyd Penny.

Dear Alexander:

Thank you for Breaking It All Down: The Zine, issue 10. I’m sittin’ here, just a-chillin’, wishin’ summer could come back. But, no such luck. So, we stay inside, and get caught up on things, and I have a lot of zines yet to respond to, and you’re next!

I had thought a while ago that Lucasfilm had revised what was considered canon when it comes to the Star arsW universe, not as Expanded as it once had been. It is not as easy to simply move to Canada as you might think. It might take some time, but if you are serious about it, contact the nearest Canadian consulate, and start the process. Do your research, and allow for a couple of years.

My letter…yes, we did go to England for two weeks, and we’d happily return in a heartbeat. Watford’s Harry Potter exhibits were gigantic and amazing to see, and The Asylum in Lincoln, the biggest steampunk event in the world, was great fun. England certainly loves their trains, and we were on Virgin First Class for a couple of trips. Riding these trains reminded me of the superfast trains in Japan…I never did know how fast we were going, but it got us to where we were going in not much time at all.

I never saw the movie Suicide Squad, but some of it was shot here. The street where there’s a number of cars that explode…that’s Yonge Street, Toronto’s main north-south street.

I like the fact there’s anime and manga about the production of anime and manga. It does get a little self-referential, I imagine, for there must be thousands who would like nothing better than to make it themselves. For this coming year, we hope to once again get a vendor’s table at Anime North. With their attendance of 25,000, it is usually our best convention of the year, and it is in less than six months.

Time to get moving, so off this goes to you. Not much in the way of plans for Christmas plans (we’ve spent our cash on getting to and around England), but staying inside where it is warm is probably the best for us.e W hope you have a warm Christmas, too, and see you in that far-off science-fictional year of 2017.

Yours, Lloyd Penney.

Well, we did have a warm Christmas in Oregon. However, the past few weeks have been followed by snow, ice, and more snow, and ice. Of the storms we got, the last one was probably bad by the standards of people outside of Portland, with over a foot of snow in parts of Portland. However, the other two had separate issues with the first starting during the evening commute, and starting hard enough to be a navigation hazard.Things were bad enough that my commute home from work ende up taking 6 hours. The other significant snowstorm happened on the weekend, which was good, but still ended up causing problems for the many bridges in the Portland area, causing traffic to slow to a crawl again. I managed to take a few pictures of the snow, which I’ve included below. The view outside the Tualatin Public Library during Snowpocalypse 1

The view outside my breakroom at work a few days after Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo - and the moniker actually fits because it was only a week later. The view just across the Colombia in Vancouver, WA during Snowpocalypse 3: Son of Snowpocalypse Submitted for Your Consideration: The Best SFF Anime of 2016 2016 has come and gone, and the time has come for nomination season. This time, hopefully before the cutoff, I have a list of five SF/Fantasy Anime series from last year that are worth your consideration for the Hugo or Dragon Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation Long (or Short) form.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Arc 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable The first arc of JoJo’s, Phantom Blood, was a pastiche of Hammer Horror. The second arc, Battle Tendency, was inspired by Indiana Jones & pulp adventure. Season 3, Stardust Crusaders, was an adaptation of the prototype of what would become the archetypical Shonen Battle formula. The arc that was adapted into Diamond is Unbreakable takes its cues from Twin Peaks, taking the globe-trotting action of the previous 3 arcs, and confining it to one city in rural Japan.The story for this arc has Jotaro Kujo and his grandfather, Joseph, coming to investigate an illegitimate son of Joseph’s, Josuke. However, upon their arrival, they discover that not only has Josuke discovered that he is a Stand Wielder, but a bunch of other people in town have started developing Stands, and with this has come a bunch of mysterious deaths. The three members of the Joestar family, along with some new friends they make along the way, must get to the bottom of these murders.

The new JoJo - Josuke, and his stand, Crazy Diamond Thunderbolt Fantasy This isn’t exactly anime... because it’s not animated. Instead, this show is a wuxia* fantasy series like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, done with incredibly detailed puppets. The Supermarionation series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson such as Thunderbirds and The Mysterions caught on in Japan and Taiwan to a degree that dwarfs their successes in the US and the UK, likely due to the Japanese tradition of Bunraku puppetry and Taiwanese glove puppetry. This leads to Thunderbolt Fantasy, a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production, written by author Gen Urobuchi, who I’ve discussed previously through his series Madoka Magica, Gargantua, and Fate/Zero. The series follows (and I’m using their “Art” name - or their name in the Martial World - which is normally what is used in the subtitles) - Vermillion Kingfisher, a martial artist and the last surviving protector of the powerfulHeaven’s Retribution Sword, a blade of such strength that to keep its power sealed, the blade, hilt and crossguard were kept separated - Kingfisher holds the Crossguard. When a group known as the Onyx Demons seeks the sword, they kill Kingfisher’s brother for the Hilt, which he possesses, forcing Kingfisher to flee with the Crossguard, in the hopes of reaching the blade before the Onyx Demons do. To do so, she must join forces with an enigmatic swordsman called “Edgeless Blade” to stop the Onyx Demons before they can achieve their goal. The series itself is incredibly well done, with fight choreography on par with real-world martial arts films, and puppeteering work that blows the work by the Andersons out of the water. Additionally, Urobuchi has a strong talent for writing compelling characters, which really shows through with this show. This is one of these shows that I kind of wish had gotten more critical attention outside of anime fan circles, especially compared to the attention that Team America World Police got. I guess it didn’t have enough potty humor. *I should probably do an article on Wuxia. My Hero Academia This is something of a shoe-in. I’d previously discussed the manga in an earlier article giving manga recommendations. The show has now gotten an anime series, and it’s a very strong series, taking the already quality material from the original manga, and providing some excellent animation on top of it.

Re:Zero - Starting Life In Another World W/ Semi-Honorable Mention KonoSuba

There were two acclaimed “Whisked To Another World” fantasy series from this past year - KonoSuba (or “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” - “Give Blessings on This Beautiful World”) and Re:Zero. KonoSuba is a parody of the tropes of Japanese console RPGs - with ecologies that don’t actually make sense, spellcasters that are more inclined to going for the most powerful explosive spell in a combat situation, instead of using any sort of tactical thinking, monsters that have evolved for environmentally impractical cuteness, towns with no real farming because of the random encounters beyond the walls (but no real shortages), and so on. KonoSuba follows a young otaku who, through the sudden selfless act of pushing someone out of the way of a speeding car, finds himself dead, and him ending up, by agreeing to be the worshipper of the water goddess Aqua, transported into a fantasy world. However, as mentioned above, it’s a parody of JRPGs. So, the monsters are cute, the magicians can level small mountains (but without any real cultural repercussions) and Aqua finds herself suddenly made a Cleric of herself because “Goddess” isn’t a class, but “Cleric” is. If you’re familiar with the tropes that are being lampooned, then you’re probably going to find the show hilarious. However, if that doesn’t sound appealing, then there is Re:Zero As with KonoSuba, Re:Zero follows an Otaku who dies performing a selfless act and who ends up in a fantasy world, but that’s about where the similarities end. Because the protagonist of Re:Zero, Subaru Natsuki, has no real special abilities to help him get along, except that when he dies, he restarts from the last “checkpoint” with full knowledge of what happened in the last pass, like the protagonist of All You Need Is Kill. He has no knowledge of when he has passed a new Checkpoint, and he cannot tell anyone about this ability, as attempting to do so can potentially lead to the deaths of those he tells, as well as his permanent death - and this ability can also attract certain magical creatures. Re:Zero is a more serious take on the concept, though it still has its moments of comedy. The time rewind and checkpoint system gives more room for character growth for Subaru, and the checkpoint element in particular gives more narrative room overall, as opposed to a more combined Groundhog Day story as opposed to All You Need is Kill, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, and (of course) Groundhog Day.

Aqua and Kazuma from Konosuba Subaru and Elena from Re:Zero Your Name. If Thunderbolt Fantasy was a cheat because it wasn’t animated, this is a cheat because while the film got a limited screening to put it into rewards contention for the Oscars this year (which came to nothing with the film not getting nominated), odds are pretty good that you have had no opportunity to see it. I haven’t - it’s getting a wider roadshow release this year. It hasn’t gotten a Blu-Ray release yet. The reason I’m doing this cheat because I’m hoping, at some point this year, you will have an opportunity to see this film. If you do, please take the opportunity to see it. Every report I’ve seen, from everyone whohas had the opportunity to see this film - in Japan where it became the highest grossing film in the history of the country, in the UK where it got a very brief series of screenings (that Mark Kermode was able to attend - https://www. theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/20/your-name-review-makoto-shinkai) has lead to the conclusion that this film is great. Even the criticism that I’ve seen coming out of Japan from die-hard Otaku has basically been “Well, it’s not doing anything that hasn’t been done before, though it does do it well.” When the opportunity comes, I will take the chance to see this film. Erased To make up for Your Name., here’s an alternate pick that is more easily accessible. Erased, much like All You Need is Kill and Re:Zero uses the narrative conceit of time loops and time rewinding. However, where the earlier two works were adventure series (and Urusei Yatsura was a romantic comedy), this series is a mystery. The series follows Satoru Fujinuma, a young man who has the involuntary ability to rewind time to avert tragedies - stopping a kid from running into the street, and so on. After Satoru’s mother observes a person who reminds her of a series of serial murders that happened in their town when Satoru was a young kid, and which also relates to a series of murders happening in the present in Tokyo, and then she in turn is murdered, Satoru snaps back to when he was in grade school, when the original murders were taking place. However, Satoru retains all his adult memories, including the details of the murders, and now he has an opportunity to make sure the correct killer is caught, and to save the lives of his mother and his classmates. As I mentioned in the description of Re:Zero, the narrative concept of time loops and time-rewinding is nothing new in speculative fiction, including in dramatic presentations. However, I have never encountered this concept before in a mystery series. Additionally, in general, I just like mystery fantasy and SF series, and I appreciate the show focusing on one mystery over the course of the series, as opposed to the episodic route that other series, like Case Closed/Detective Conan take.

Satoru as a child and as an adult Submitted For Your Consideration: Notable Anime SF Fancasts of 2016 In addition to recommending a variety of anime series for your consideration for the Hugo Awards, I have a handful of Fancasts to consider taking a look at, related to speculative fiction and fantasy in the context of anime.

The Canipa Effect The Canipa Effect is a YouTube series focused on anime - less from a literary criticism effect, as some of my reviews on my blog, in this fanzine, and on my YouTube channel are, but more from a technical and industry side of things. The host of the show, Callum May, has put together some tremendously researched episodes discussing creators, animation studios, and he also gets into some of the shows of currently airing seasons, getting into shows that are particularly notable from a storytelling and animation standpoint. Now, not all of these are works of SF. In particular, the series Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, a series about the Japanese theatrical storytelling tradition of Rakugo was one of his highlights from last year - due to the strong character focused storytelling, excellent acting, and the incredibly subtle animation for the performances. One of his others was Yuri on Ice, an anime series about figure skating, which featured very fluidly animated figure skating performances and a very well written homosexual relationship. However, neither series contains SF elements. That said, plenty of works of SF anime, and the studios that make them, are covered on his show, from particular series like One Punch Man, to studios with a tremendous amount of SF work in their history like Studio Bones (Cowboy Bebop - which I discussed in my article I contributed to The Drink Tank) and Ufotable (Fate/Zero - which I discussed in one of my earlier issues). Mr. May has also started getting interviews with staff members for various anime studios, including Kenji Horikawa of P.A. Works (Shirobako, which I discussed last issue) I would absolutely consider The Canipa Effect to be an excellent companion to the anime articles in my fanzine. The Canipa Effect can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCanipaEffect/

Glass Reflection I’ve talked about Tristan “Arkada” Gallant’s work in a previous issue, where I was discussing several general internet reviewers. Arkada has still been active since then, and he has even been selected as one of the nominating judges for Crunchyroll.com’s Anime Awards (the results of which can be seen at https:// theanimeawards.com/) Arkada’s work also makes for a nice complement to The Canipa Effect, as he reviews a lot of currently airing anime series as they come out, and he has a generally more regular frequency of releases. They are still well thought out and insightful reviews, but their purpose is more on highlighting what shows in a season are worth your time, and less on the particulars of the craft of animation. Glass Reflection can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/GRArkada

Professor Otaku Professor Otaku (I don’t know his real name exactly), is notable less for his review work - though I do find it informative - and more for two specifically SFnal ongoing series that are running on hisYouTube channel. The first is the History of Mecha, which is a (mostly) year-by-year breakdown of the mecha anime series, both fantasy and science fiction, released in Japan, and a discussion of what series succeeded and failed, with a focus being put on the notable series to come out in a year. The show makes for a really good jumping off point for finding other mecha series to watch, both old and new. The other SFnal series he is currently running is The Gundam Retrospective - a series that focuses on the Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise. The show covers political background of events in the series, the actual narrative of the shows, and gets into the mecha hardware. The series is currently going through the Universal Century timeline, and as of this writing has just finished the events of the original Gundam series (known as the “One Year War” in the timeline, though considering the background that’s probably something of a misnomer). Presumably once he gets through the Universal Century timeline, he’ll get into some of the other Gundam universes such as the Turn A Gundam and Gundam Wing universes. Professor Otaku’s work can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/ProfessorOtakuD2

Reverse Thieves This is probably the one traditional podcast I’m recommending here - not that there is dearth of good anime SF podcasts, but because a lot of the other podcasts I’d recommend are either attached to actual news sites like Anime News Network, or which don’t work as well for people who aren’t already fans, like the Anime World Order podcast. The Reverse Thieves Podcast is hosted by Alan and Kate, and is made up of a main monthly podcast - the Speakeasy, and a rapid succession of podcasts around the beginning and end of each quarterly anime season, covering the new shows for that season, both their initial impressions and (should they finish the show) their final thoughts on the series - these podcasts being known as “SWAT Reviews” and “Case Closed Reviews’ respectively. They’ve also added a few Rewatch podcasts as well - covering the SF anime Cowboy Bebop and the first season of the fantasy anime The Slayers. The site also has a smattering of blog posts every week as well. Kate and Alan, who are based out of the New York area, have some insightful commentary on the anime, manga, and translated novels they discuss on each episode, and the two have some (admittedly limited) background in Lit-SF fandom as well, which they bring to their con reports, along with some of their discussions of SF anime, manga, and light novels. The Reverse Thieves podcasts can be found at https://reversethieves.com/ Haiku by Denny Marshall sun safe space heater galaxies space probes pass beyond solar systems slowly inch closer loved living on farm until you dug a new well vampires emerge tells mom she’s pregnant scared too mention part about alien father Bio Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. Recent credit include cover art for Bards And Sages Quarterly Jan. 2017 and poetry in Space And Time #126 Winter 2016. His flash fiction story “The Window” published by Sci Phi Journal is on the Tangent Online 2016 Recommended Reading List, a review magazine for short SF & fantasy. Denny’s works have appeared in other fanzines such as Tightbeam and Journey Planet. See more at www.dennymarshall.com.