Battle Athletes Victory Special feature: Blue SSubmarine No. 6

The official ‘zine Anime Cincinnati
Still only $1.00
I s s u e 1 0 Vo l u m e 0 9
January 19, 2001
Inside:
The Part You Never Read
There’s a Pan-Dimension
in My Icebox
by
Lord Chaos
Anime Toys in America
by
V.D. Gaijin
America's Children Demand
Shogun Warriors
by
David Merrill
B a t t l e A t h l e t e s Vi c t o r y
Episode 20
The friends
Kimagure Orange Road
Episode 22
An Adult Relationship?!
Madoka Secretly Returns Home in the Morning.
L o d o s s Wa r s T V
Episode 01
The Free Knight...
A New Legend Begins
Outlaw Star
Episode 01
Outlaw Star
Special feature:
Blue Submarine No. 6
Episodes 3-4
Editing & Design
Greg Spahr
Bill Johnson
The Part You Never Read......
Published By
Unsung Heroes, Inc.
This newsletter is produced on a
Pentium 300 with 192 megs of RAM.
It is copied digitally using Adobe
Acrobat 4.0. Images were scanned in on
Optic Pro A3I flatbed scanner.
The official fanzine of Anime Cincinnati
Issue 10, Volume 09, January 19, 2001
——————
NOTICE!
Character likenesses, names, and titles which appear in
this production are the property of their prospective owners and are used for the sole purpose of the promotion of
anime. No reproduction of this publication is permitted
without the expressed consent of the publishers and/or
the original authors.
The Program Guy
Craig "Gargoyle" Mercer
Witty Quote: "The time to begin most things
is ten years ago."
Voicemail: [513] 522-3419
E-mail: [email protected]
The Still Pres Guy
“Saber Marionette” Steve Mark
Witty Quote: "The innocent bystander is a
villain: he should have come in on our side."
Voicemail: [513] 272-2615
E-mail: [email protected]
The “Everything Else” Guy
Ok, I told Bill I’d take care of part of this newsletter for
him, and here I am, tired, sick and depressed....but none
the less, we go on. (Pauses to put on some Lupin Punch
the Monkey remixes.) Well then, Bill has continued on
with the never ending pan-dimensional fan fic which as
far as I can tell, goes on forever. I’ve included my
standard obscure and obtuse articles that I pick up. Yes,
my thoughts this week revolve around toys and junk.
Some of you older fans will think back to the 70’s and
even now, early 80’s and realize the great toys that have
been inspired by anime that most newer fans still don’t
know exist. Hmm, I just made myself feel old by
including the 80’s in there. But you try and touch my
Voltron toys and I’ll break your dang arm. Read the
article...or i’ll break your dang arm!^_On to other random things in the anime/manga world..
Otaku World Is DEAD!
Yes, sadly it’s true, Otaku World is suffering from
financial woes that threaten its demise forever. For
those of you who are not familiar with this site, I’ll clue
you in. I’ve discovered OW way back in the day and
found it to be fulla fun anime/manga related doohickeys and gee-gaws for the computer. OW
introduced me to manga such as Futaba-kun, way
before the world had ever even seen the likes of Studio
Ironcat. So as soon as you leave here tonight and all
go crawling back to your interenet connections, visit
Otaku World (http://otakuworld.com/) and check out the
site while it’s still there and show your support to keep
it there!
Bill "Ryouga" Johnson
Witty Quote: "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen...and stupidity."
Voicemail: [513] 521-2268
E-mail: [email protected]
And because I need to fill up space, here’s a little
something from the bookmarks of my mind.
The "Goofy" Guy
Yes, it’s the “I hate Priss Homepage”. It’s glorious. And
it’s all so true. Enjoy. Peace. Blah. Feh!
Greg "GoofyRobo" Spahr
Witty quote: "When we get over a love, we
remember one or two of its high moments, and
all of its lows."
Voicemail: [513] 931-5715
E-mail: [email protected]
For Bubblegum Crisis fan out there, and no I don’t
mean that new drek from ADV, go here:
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/5327/ih8priss.html
Greg Spahr, Some guy that shows up at times
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THERE'S A PAN-DIMENSION IN MY ICE BOX!!!
Part II: My Heart's In A Blender Stuck on 'Frappe'
By His lordship Chaos
Yes indeed, once more we're here to return to the
wonderful pan-dimensional world where men are
men, women are scantily-clad, and that ugly ogre
eating your sheep and terrorizing your village wears a
nametag that says, "Hello, my name is Bob."
This naturally begs the question: if everyone's so
big on the record of Lodoss War, why don't they want
to try the cassette tape of Lodoss War? Or how about
the CD?
But I digress!
After getting over the shock of discovering a portal
to an alternate Anime world in my friend's icebox,
there was another shock waiting for me. The fact that
a certain psychotic, Cosplaying gerbil named
'Omelette' was my guide helped me realize that the
only way I would survive this new rant saga was if I
was completely drunk for it. Unfortunately the killer
mystery meat had spilled all my precious Sake...but I
was able to take it like an otaku!
Chaos: ;_; [sniffle!] "I want my Sakeeeee! Even just a
little sip!"
Tamagoyaki: --;; [dressed in a Chocobo suit] "You're
not exactly inspiring any confidence in me here."
Chaos: "Hush, you talking rodent! Don't you have a
plastic ball to run around in?"
Tamagoyaki: "I left it in my other Chocobo outfit."
Chaos: [eyebrow twitch!] "I don't believe this."
Well, I managed to get over my distraught of the
lost Sake, hoping that I might have a Fujisawa-sensei
complex and get stronger the more sober I was. After
punting Tamagoyaki only over the first mountain
range, I realized that super-strength wasn't going to
be on my list of skills.
Then came the new horror: I had not the slightest
clue how many Hit Points per rant I was allowed.
Even moreso, here I was in a fantasy world, and I had
no idea if I possessed any nifty magical powers or
3
cool, oversized weapons! Of course, knowing my luck
I'd wind up conjuring some quasi-Slayers wanna-be
spell like the 'Dil Pickle Brand' or 'Ra Tilt-o-Whirl'.
This was just like a scene out of that bad Anime
crossover, Urban Legend of Lemnear: it happened to
a friend of a friend of a Silver Warrior, and now it'll
happen to you. Yet this was the rant I was stuck in,
and I had to make the best of it...somehow. But at the
very least the scenery was nice: lot's of open space,
lush green trees, distant mountain ranges, a really big
and ugly monster standing right in front of me with
drool dripping down its fangs and many unsightly
appendages waving around it's body.
Chaos: o.O;; "KYAAAAAAAA!!! RUN AWAY! RUN
AWAY!"
And so with the grace and heroicism of an SD
Gourry popping open his skull cap to reveal he really
did have Jello for brains, I screamed like a girl and
took off across the countryside, leaving behind me
only a long trail of dissipating dust.
However, in my terrified and super-deformed
state, I failed to notice the Gainax Bounce jiggling
right in front of me. Well, not until I got more than a
mere faceful of fanservice. My eyes bugged out wildly
as I saw I had just run into an Elfgirl! Yes, with those
cute, sloping ears and tight, revealing bodysuit, this
blonde elfin babe was suddenly making me very
happy to have been sucked into this place. Among
other things, the day was looking up!
The Elfgirl smiled prettily as she dusted her
bosoms off, looked deep into my teary Bambi
eyes...and proceeded to angrily stomp the crap out of
me. By the time Tamagoyaki managed to show up
riding on a SeeD transport craft, I was sporting a lot of
neat li'l treadmarks all along my backside, my limbs
twitching involuntarily from the crater I had been
pounded into.
Irate SD Elfgirl: [jumping on Chaos' back] "How dare
you get fresh with this rant's token Elfgirl, you pervert!
SHIN'NE!!!"
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Tamagoyaki: [now dressed up as Squall Leonhart]
"No! Don't kill him!"
Elfgirl: "Why not?"
Tamagoyaki: "Nope."
Chaos: [whew!] "That's good. For a moment I was
afraid I had gotten transported onto the Spooner
Continent."
Tamagoyaki: "If he dies, we don't get paid."
Chaos: [whew!] "Saved by contractual obligations!"
Tamagoyaki: [pulling out a 1000t mallet] "Use this
instead. It'll nicely smite him, but he won't die."
Chaos: "Just whose side are you on here?!"
After the repeated kickings of my kawaii little
kiester came to an end, Tamagoyaki informed me that
the cute and rather vicious Elfgirl was one of the
characters who would be accompanying me on my
quest. Rare was the typical RPG world which didn't
feature an Elfgirl of some kind. I personally would
have preferred someone like Naga (minus the laugh
of course) or else Rayearth's Cauldina.
Chaos: "I wonder if I can get the Midnight Panthers to
show up in this rant?"
Tamagoyaki: [hiding something behind his back]
"Um...you might want to rethink that."
Chaos: [suspicious] "Why?"
Tamagoyaki: ^-^ "Everyone here's named after
kitchen appliances!"
[Chaos facevaults!]
And so in my mind this rant got flushed right down
the proverbial toilet. The fact that the token Elfgirl's
name was Blender really didn't help the situation
much either. My spine still fractured in several painful
areas, I wasn't about to tease Blender about her
name...especially when I learned she had a big
brother named Waffle Iron. Yet there were still other
problems plaguing me, like just how much Sephiroth
really loved his mother...very akin to Norman Bates.
So as Tamagoyaki, Blender and myself walked
through the Forest of Mysterious Sneezing (due to the
fact that all the trees seemed to be strangely allergic
to themselves), I tried to get as much information as I
could out of the gerbil to ensure I didn't wind looking
like a complete idiot for the next few rants.
Blender & Tamagoyaki: "Too late."
Chaos: [grrr!] "You guys aren't exactly helping me
either!"
[Chaos peers in behind Tamagoyaki, only to find--!]
Chaos: o.O "An electric trimmer?! You didn't shave
Kei bald when she was in her panther form, did you?"
Tamagoyaki: "Was that a rhetorical question?"
Chaos: [smacking his forehead] "I don't believe this.
Are you deliberately trying to get us killed? I never
thought it could happen, but you're even worse of a
guide than Mokona!"
Tamagoyaki: "Would you rather I squeaked 'PU PU
PUUUU!' every three seconds?"
Chaos: [wince!] "For the love of all that is Clamp, NO!!
Just please don't tell me everyone here's named after
food."
Blender: [hmph!] "Hey, we wouldn't be in this situation
if you hadn't lost to that mystery meat. This is your
OVA rant; you clean the plot up."
Chaos: [sweatdrop!] "I was brought here to save this
dimension?"
Tamagoyaki: "More or less. When you stuffed that
killer mystery meat into the icebox, you pushed it into
this world. Now it's set itself up as the token evil
overlord. Of course, this wouldn't have happened if
you had cleaned out your fridge."
Chaos: "It was a mean breaded pork cutlet, I'll have
you know! And just how am I supposed to save the
alternate world with an Elfgirl named Blender?!"
Blender: [grrr!] "I heard that!"
4
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Chaos: o.O
lighter fluid?!"
1000t mallet: *WHAM!!*
Tamagoyaki: "My hotdog isn't fully cooked."
Banana-thingy: [popping out from behind a tree]
"Ganbaru."
Chaos: o.O "KYAAAAAAAA!!! Where's a Shiva when
you need it?! A demona crystal spell? Something!
ANYTHING!!"
Well, I suppose it could have been worse. I could
have been paired up with someone called 'Potato
Masher'. Then again, that slight bit of optimism didn't
exactly help when Blender clobbered me. However,
there was still hope that our relationship might work
out; after all, Elfgirls dig the brooding loner bid. All I
had to do for her to fall head over heels in love with
me was become the somber yet suavely-dressed and
cool guy!
Chaos: [grrr!] "And just how am I supposed to do this
when you dress me up to look like Quistis Trepe?!"
[End!]
Next time: remembering to bring extra toilet paper
with you during countless stupid wanderings, and
discovering that hiring Lina Inverse as the token
sorceress really hurts. A lot.
Magic Knights: "Kyo wa...dare da?"
[Cue an SD Banana-thingy popping up!]
SD Banana-thingy: "Ganbaru."
Tamagoyaki: "Well, it was either her or Fuu from
Rayearth. They're the only two RPG fantasy-type girls
who I know wear glasses--and last I checked, you
can't lift a sword that big. In fact, I doubt you'd be able
to properly use one of those plastic cocktail swords."
Magic Knights: "Kyo wa...Tamagoyaki!"
SD Banana-thingy: o.O
[Cue the gerbil piloting the Escaflowne guymelef!]
Chaos: [evil smile] "Oh, well in that case...let's see
how you like me using this metal whip!!"
Tamagoyaki: ^-^ "Is this a great column or what?
KEEP STRONG WITH THIS, BANANA-THINGY!!"
Blender: [clobbering Chaos] "Leave the poor gerbil
alone!"
*CRUNCH!!!*
Chaos: [twitch twitch!] "H-Hai...."
-------------------------------------------------------
Tamagoyaki: ^^ "He's so fun to tease."
Reprinted with permission from
And so that's how my first day in this alternate
Anime world was spent. We're going to leave out that
whole 'mistaking the Ifrit fire elemental for a cuddly
little SD Suzaku' out though...mainly because instead
of helping me put out the fire on my Tamahome
Hilfiger pants, Tamagoyaki tried to roast
marshmallows. Yes, it was up to me to save this pandimension. And with a great amount of confidence, I
was proud to say--
Lord Chaos
http://carnage.fanfic.org/homepage.html
and
Anime on DVD
http://www.animeondvd.com
Blender: "We're screwed."
Chaos: "I don't see you trying to help, Little Miss
Osterizer. (o.O) Hey! What are you doing with that
5
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Anime Toys in America
By V.D. Gaijin
“those of you who insist on being "purists" in
your giant robot die cast toy collecting, you might
as well piss off right now."
these things to come out. Pick these up if ya like
Gundam. You won't be disappointed like you were
when the Akira figures came out!
Ten years ago, I used to wish that I could walk into my
favorite toy store and buy just about any Anime toy I
could want. Sure there were those awesome
Godaikin robots and the ever so popular Gakken
Robotech toys but, my youthful favorites always
resided with Gundam.
Dragonball Z has been my favorite action figure line to
come out from Japan. But now, we've got Irwin
making these new sculpts that are way more posable
than the original Japanese ones from Bandai!
Back in the day, all I was barely able to afford was the
Gundam model kits. These were imported at hugely
inflated rates and could be found at our local
comic/hobby shops around town. Ah, the good old
days...NOT!
These figures are awesome and nicely detailed. Not
only are the likeness' dead-on, Irwin has managed to
come out with figures that have never seen the light
of day! Just look at the card back to the right of this
article! Figures like Bulma w/Ginyu frog, Master Roshi
w/turtle and Nappa? Hell yeah! Gimme more!
Everywhere you go now, you can pick up Gundam
and Dragonball Z toys. Some of these things weren't
even made for the Japanese market!
I'll start off with the new line of Gundam W toys.
Gundam W is NOT one of my favorite Anime shows
but it IS Gundam after all so therefore, being the
fanboy that I am, I must have these little plastic
beauties!
These are true action figures. I'm sure you've seen
these posable, highly detailed toys while shopping at
Target, TRU or Walmart's across the nation. But they
are truly a nice toy. Sure I have some gripes but that's
because I'm waiting for a Zeta and Double Zeta line of
6
Lastly, I still indulge in buying Japanese toys. After all,
they are the ones that inspired us right?
Mobile Suit in Action are probably the nicest toy of this
kind to come out since the High Complete Models of
the 1980's. Found mainly in Electronic Boutiques,
Suncoast and Comic shops, these are a little more
expensive but are nicer than some of the Gundam W
figures.
Yeah, I don't like Turn A either but like I said, It's
Gundam so I must have it! Call me a monomania
fanboy I guess! Looks like the dream I once had ten
plus years ago is finally coming true!
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Big Eyed - Everything you need to know about Japanese cartoons
America's Children Demand Shogun Warriors
By David Merrill
So the week before Xmas my friends Grant and
Debbie brought their two kids over to socialize and
get presents. And sure, the kids got a lot of stuff, and
wrapping paper was all over the floor and they were
toddling all over the apartment talking into their play
cell phones and playing with the boxes and wrapping
paper. But the toys they liked best were twenty years
old; two feet tall, molded in garishly hued plastic, and
with spring-loaded fists that shoot at the touch of a
button. I'm talking, of course, about the Shogun
Warriors, one of America's first Japanese import toy
lines, and one that made a profound impression on
more merchandise under the Shogun label: model
kits, Colorform sets, the Marvel comic book, a Ben
Cooper Halloween costume (!!), jigsaw puzzles, and
even a battery-powered Gaiking under the name
American children of the late Carter era.
What strikes me as amazing about this toy line, in
retrospect, is the sheer amount of toys and licensed
properties Mattel managed to get the contracts for.
Sure, there were the giant 2' plastic robot heroes, and
there were four of them, from four different shows. But
there were literally hundreds of other toys - smaller
die-cast and plastic robots and vehicles from shows
as widely varying as Daimos, Goranger, Raideen,
Mazinger Z, Getta Robo G, Starzinger, Gaiking,
Danguard Ace, Spiderman (!!), Voltes V, Combattler
V, Grandizer, Daitetsujin 17, Kyodain, Message From
Space (!), and Great Mazinger. Most of these toys
were licensed from the Japanese toy manufacturer
Popy, and rest assured there were many more toys
that the Japanese kids got to play with that we'd never
see. Of course we had the 8" Mego superhero figures,
so it all evens out.
Along with toys, Mattel managed to squeeze even
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"Zargon". The giant Shoguns are probably the ones
everybody thinks of when they think of Shogun
Warriors; Rayeen (original name Raideen), Dragun
(Getta Dragon from Getta Robo G), Daimos (original
title Daimos), Gaiking
(original title Gaiking), and later, Rodan and Godzilla
(guess what the original titles were?) To paraphrase
John Woo, if you had one of these toys you thought
you were Superman; if you had four, you were GOD.
They were the ne plus ultra of late '70s toydom. Sure,
we know that Godzilla doesn't actually shoot his fist
off, but so what?
If you had a good selection of the smaller die-cast
toys, you weren't that bad off either; in many ways
they're better toys. More things shoot (fists, missiles,
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arrows), more things pop open, the toys are more
posable, and there are just plain more of them. Heck,
the Raideen actually transforms- take THAT, Hasbro!
They were better suited to attack your plastic soldiers,
too.
Now, most of us 70s kids are grown up and some of
us have children of our own. Careful scientific
research has demonstrated that these "future
children" also love to play with the Shogun Warriors,
so it seems to me that what Mattel ought to do is dust
off those Popy contracts, fire those factories back up,
and start making some Shogun
Warriors again, so that our kids can
play with toys that AREN'T going for
hundreds of dollars on Ebay.
I mean, they're not hard toys to make.
Mostly vinyl, a few stickers, some
springs - not exactly rocket science. I'd
gladly pay thirty or forty bucks each to
stick a Gaiking under the Christmas
tree next year, wouldn't you? Heck,
most of us would buy TWO EACH, one
for the kid and one for us.
releasing special, expensive, all-the-bells-andwhistles versions of these toys, which you won't let
your children touch until they're 30 or have completed
their first year of residency in the head trauma unit of
the local emergency room. They're also releasing big,
expensive versions of the big plastic toys that cost
upwards of four hundred dollars - and that's new!
Now, I've got nothing against the collector's market.
It's kept the comic book industry alive here in the
States for twenty years. But darn it, these are
children's toys and there ought to be a version that the
children can play with. It's downright criminal to deny
the youth of the 21st century a chance to be Raideen
or Gaiking for a day, don't you think? Heck, even the
Brits are getting into the act - Grant's kids have
Thunderbirds toys for days.
So let's see some 24" Shogun Warriors for America's
children, OK? It's only fair. Hey, and while you're at it
bring back those Mego superhero figures too. I never
did get all of the Fantastic Four!
Dave Merrill resides in Doraville, GA where he draws
goofy cartoons and is an associate editor of the anime
freezine FOXY ALIEN. Questions? Comments?
Contact Dave at [email protected]
Photos courtesy of www.wildtoys.com
However, instead of the mass-market
kid-friendly approach, what we're
seeing is Japanese companies
Upcoming Meetings!
8
February 2
February 16
March 2
March 16
March 30
April 13
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