March Birthdays

3/1, Chazumi
3/3, Saffran
3/6, Ukyou
3/7, dragonkain01
3/11, ukyo_rulz
3/23, Cocoa-butter

The AnimeInfo.org Fan Forum is now running on a new and updated version 2.2.2. The board now has some new features, such as a glossary of terms for those who want to know what certain abbreviated terms mean, and insanity points which serve no real purpose other than entertainment. More new features were added later including quickie reply for those who want to leave a short reply message and not have to open a whole new page to do so, a rules and regulations link has been added to every new post and reply page and the new member registration page, a modified referral link added to use e-mail to refer people to the board, and a moderator drop-down menu on the main page which lists the moderators of each forum to make it look cleaner and more graphically impressive. The private message feature has been modified to allow downloading of received pm's and deleting of pm's to allow for faster load time of the pages.

Right back at you Japan

In what can be seen as an unusual cross-cultural exchange of anime between America and Japan, NHK Television will begin re-broadcasting Tetsuwan Atom TV episodes beginning on April 20th. These episodes will be aired will be American Astroboy episodes dubbed in English and subtitled in Japanese. Long thought lost, episodes of Astroboy were rediscovered in storage in a warehouse in the United States three years ago. It would be great to have these appear sometime in the future again here in America.

Spirited Away Sweeps Awards Ceremony

At the recent Tokyo Anime Fair the 2001 TAF Anime Awards were handed out. A panel of 72 professionals in the Japanese anime industry sifted through 287 nominees (191 TV series, 31 movies & 65 OAVs) all released in Japan between from January 1st to December 31, 2001. In the area of Theatrical Animation, Spirited Away made a huge sweep including: the Excellence Award, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Character Design, Best Voice Acting: Rumi Hiiragi, Best Art Design, and Best Soundtrack. In the area of Television Inuyasha received the Excellence Award and Best Screenplay. Fruit Basket was recognized also with the Excellence Award and Best Director. In conjunction with this, Spirited Away was awarded the Judge's Choice Grand Prix Award for best anime production of 2001. The "people's choice" awards determined by on-line voting tallied from three months of results prior to the anime convention resulted in:
Most Popular Family TV Series: Mooto! Ojamajo Doremi
Most Popular General TV Series: Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san
Most Popular Movie: Spirited Away

Miyazaki pessimistic about future of anime From the BBC:

Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki, whose animated feature Spirited Away has won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival, has said that Japanese animation "is facing a dead end". And he described younger film-makers as the "copycat generation".

Mr Miyazaki's comments came at a news conference where he said winning the Golden Bear was "like experiencing Christmas and New Year's holidays at the same time".
Mr Miyazaki's film shared the coveted award with Bloody Sunday, directed by Paul Greengrass.

Spirited Away tells the story of a young girl's adventures in a land of goblins and gods. Ten-year-old Chihiro and her family stumble across a hot spa catering to Japan's eight million gods - and she ends up working as a bath attendant before she is able to escape. Spirited Away has become the biggest grossing Japanese film of all time, with 29.4 billion yen (228.5 million dollars) in ticket sales to date.

Despite this success, Mr Miyazaki's comments about the Japanese animation industry were pessimistic.
"I think Japanese animation is facing a dead end," he said.
"I wonder why there are so many films that contain so much violence and feature sexual content.
"I think there is a chance that the spread of Japanese animation overseas might only lead to embarrassment."

The director even cast doubt on the value of his own films, saying that his work - and animated films in general - could be robbing Japanese children of the time to experience life. Watching animated films for four or five hours could stifle creativity, he said, describing the situation as "a true dilemma for me".
"People read comics in trains even when they become adults.
"Major newspapers praise the sales achieved by video games.
"Why don't people debate what effect this is having on our children?" asked Mr Miyazaki.

March Releases
(Subject to change by companies):

DVD:

3-12
Cardcaptor Sakura 8 "Sweet Trouble"
Gatekeepers 4 "The New Threat"
Nadia, Secret Of Blue Water 7 "Nadia's Island"
Vandread 2 "Nirvana"
Yu Yu Hakusho 1 "Yusuke Lost, Yusuke Found"
Yu Yu Hakusho 2 "Artifacts Of Darkness"

3-19
GTO 1 "Great Teacher Onizuka"
Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory 2
Gundam 08th MS Team Movie "Miller's Report"
Robotech 13 "New Generation: Genesis"
Robotech 14 "New Generation: Hollow Victory"
Robotech DVD Box 7 "New Generation: Robotech Legacy"
Sailor Moon Super S TV 2 "Pegasus" Collection

3-22
Riding Bean

3-26
Card Captor Sakura Movie
Cardcaptors Movie dub
Pokemon 51 "Ursaring Rampage"
Ranma ½ Random Rhapsody 8 "For The Love Of Akane"
Rurouni Kenshin TV 16 "Son Of God"

3-29
Urusei Yatsura TV 8

VHS:

3-12
Cardcaptor Sakura 8 "Sweet Trouble
Gatekeepers 4 dub "The New Threat"
Nadia, Secret Of Blue Water 7 dub "Nadia's Island"
Sailor Moon TV 19 "Time Travlers"
Sailor Moon TV 20 "Love Conquers All"
Vandread 2 dub "Nirvana"
Yu Yu Hakushu 1 dub "Yusuke Lost, Yusuke Found"
Yu Yu Hakushu 2 dub "Artifacts of Darkness"

3-19
Dragon Ball Z 73 dub "Majin Buu: Defiance"
Dragon Ball Z 74 dub "Majin Buu: A Hero's Farewell"
Sailor Moon Super S TV 3 dub "Amazon Trio"
Sailor Moon Super S TV 4 dub "The Dream Mirror"

3-26
Cardcaptors Movie dub
Ranma ½ Random Rhapsody 8 dub "For The Love Of Akane"
Rurouni Kenshin TV 16 dub and sub "Son Of God"

Graphic Novels
3-2
Card Captor Sakura 6
Gundam Wing "Battlefield Of Pacifists" 1
Record Of Lodoss War "Chronicles Of Heroic Knight" 2

3-8
Vagabond 1
3-13
Oh My Goddess 11 "Childhood's End"

3-20
Akira 6

3-27
Astroboy 1

3/1-2
JohnCon '02 (Baltimore, Maryland)

3/22-24
Anime Express 5 (Dayton Beach, Florida)
Anime Marathon 2002 (Hamburg, Germany)

Reviewer #1: Shouryu
The Scores:
Entertainment: 9.0
Plot: 6.0
Characters: 7.0
Animation: 7.0
Overall: 8.0

Fun, fun, fun...this series is really about the laughs. What makes this series work so well is the fact that it's built around several comedic elements, the first and primary of which is Ranma's gender-shifting abilities. This is paired with an easily angered tomboy of a girl as his fiance. Throw in several other people who desperately want to be with each of them, and you've got chaos waiting to explode.

Generally speaking the animation comes and goes as far as quality. Usually it's fairly good, but has dry spots here and there...they're forgivable. The OAVs (which were produced after the TV series run) have the highest quality animation, and some of the best writing and manga adapatation as well.

The stories and characterizations are generally good - after a point, you sort of know what to expect from a character, and they remain funny, because they are continually seen in new, fresh, and innovative situations. Since it is primarily a comedy, most of the series revolves around gaining laughs, but there are points of major development in the characters, which add a great deal as well. Generally, the longer the story arc, the more intense the story is. While a lot of the one episode stories are fun, it's when a tale takes 2-4 episodes to unfold that you begin to see the excellent writing that the series involves.

Generally speaking, ANY person who considers himself an anime fan should have some knowledge of this series. Not everyone digs it, but it's a rare person that doesn't. It's a major series and a popular title this side of the Pacific, and the fact that it ran for SEVEN seasons (and the manga for more than a decade) in Japan should say something about the quality and entertainment value. It's good stuff.

Have something to say? You can write an editorial about anime, or just about life for the AnimeInfo Tribune. Send your editorials to misato@animeinfo.org

WATAHI WA NIHONGO O HANASHIMASU! (I SPEAK JAPANESE)
Ready? On to lesson 3!
By Korium9

Vocab:
Today we learn to count!
1 = ichi 2 = ni 3 = san
4 = shi/yon/yo (yes, there are three ways to say "4," yon
and shi are
interchangeable for the most part. yo is less common, it
will be pointed out)
(a historical note, shi also means "death." Thus, 4 often
has superstitions
similar to the Western number 13.)
5 = go 6 = roku
7 = shichi/nana (likewise, usually interchangeable)
8 = hatchi 9 = kyuu/ku 10 = juu

Numbers 11-19 are done by juu + [the one's digit]
11: juuichi 12: juuni

Regarding umbers greater than 19, it's the number in the
tens digit, then
"juu", followed by the next number.
20 = nijuu
40 = yonjuu (nope, you can't say shijuu)
70 = nanajuu

For numbers 100 and greater, most of these follow the same
rule: the digit
number, followed by its place value. The irregular ones
are also listed.
100 = hyaku 300 = sanbyaku 400 = yonhyaku 600 =
roppyaku
700 = nanahyaku 800 = happyaku
1000 = sen or issen 3000 = sanzen 4000 = yonsen 7000
= nanasen
8000 = hassen 10000 = man or ichiman

Japanese numbering is done in sets of four, rather than
the sets of three.
So, instead of "1,000,000," in Japanese it is broken down
as: "100,0000."
Thus, "man" is where the 2nd set of four starts, which
follows the same
pattern as the first set of four. Ex: "1234567"
(123,4567) = "hyaku niju
sanman yonsen gohyaku rokujuu shichi"

This numbering system extends to just about everything,
including time and
the months. A suffix is simply added to the number.
However, there are a
ton of suffixes that are used depending on what is being
counted, like flat
objects ("-mai"), people ("-nin"), etc. In fact, there
are suffixes solely
for small animals or bread!

So, like I said, we can do time! The suffix "-ji" is used
(note: this is
_not_ the suffix for generic hours, which is "-jikan").

1:00 = ichiji 2:00 = niji 3:00 = sanji 4:00 = yoji
(note that "yo" is
used)
5:00 = goji 6:00 = rokuji 7:00 = shichiji 8:00 =
hatchiji 9:00 =
kuji 10:00 = juuji 11:00 = juuichiji 12:00 = juuniji

Minutes can be done in a similar fashion, with a "-pun"
(or "-fun") suffix.
Irregulars are listed:
1 = ippun 2 = nifun 4 = yonpun 5 = gofun 6 =
roppun 7 = nanafun
8 = happun/hachifun 9 = kyuufun 10 = juppun

To indicate AM or PM, these go in front of the time.
gozen = AM
gogo = PM

han = "half an hour" (put this after "____ji")

nanji = "what time?"
ima = "now"

So used in a sentence:
ima, nanji desu ka. = "what time is [it] now?"
gozen ichiji han desu. = "[it] is 1:30 AM."

A general counter for small things and things where you
can't remember the
suffix is "-tsu." Sandly, most of the numbering system
isn't like the
previous patterns. After 10 it reverts to the normal
counting pattern, though.
1 = hitotsu 2 = futatsu 3 = mittsu 4 = yottsu 5 =
itsutsu
6 = muttsu 7 = nanatsu 8 = yattsu 9 = kokonotsu 10
= tou

Eep! Out of space! That's it for today. Next time we'll
go more into verbs.
However, before you go, tell me something: "ima, nanji
desu ka"
(c'mon, practice . . . ^_^ )

If you have a letter you would like to submit to the editors, please send it to asuka@animeinfo.org

Misato

Misato fills many roles at AnimeInfo.org, from cuteness tester, to board janitor, to event planner, but officially as an admin, her primary responsibilities are Public Relations, the AnimeInfo.org Tribune, and keeping Frank and Asuka relatively sane. She also moderates many of the AI.org boards.

Having completed bachelor's degrees in both Biology and Classical Civilization, Misato is pursuing a Master's Degree in Higher Education, with a Student Affairs concentration, making her one of the many AnimeInfo.org stressed grad students, who really need a support group. Maybe she'll organize one. Misato aspires to work in a student affairs department at a college or university, hopefully someplace warm, preferable Hawaii. That or become a pop star.

Misato's introduction to anime was fairly recent and entirely thanks to Frank Sanchez and later to her little brothers' addiction to Cartoon Network. Her favorites include Card Captor Sakura, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, and Fushigi Yuugi.

When asked about her thoughts on AnimeInfo.org's success, Misato would like to say "Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah" to the leader of a nameless previous website project that she was involved with.

Misato
misato@animeinfo.org

Asuka-chan
asuka@animeinfo.org