Editor's Note

I get angry when people view anime as a cute little fad. Or, more specifically, when people--especially those in the media, whose job it is to report accurately--can't be bothered to get the facts right. I witnessed two separate instances of this last weekend.

The first was on a television show on the Sci Fi Channel this weekend; the host was talking about the TENCHI MUYO movie. But at first, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, because he kept mispronouncing it. First it was "Tanky Mee-you" and then it was "Ten-key Mee-you". When they started showing scenes from the film, I figured out what it was, and I was practically throwing my coffee cup at the screen shouting,"Hello!! It's TEN-CHEE! His name is Ten-chee, not Tanky or Ten-Key or any other sort of machinery."

And then, to make matters worse, they had a brief interview with Mr. Naoju Nakamura, President of Pioneer LDCA. First he made the host look really bad by saying "Tenchi" correctly every time (surprise surprise!) the word came out of his mouth. And then, they added insult to injury by misspelling his name.

What I want to know is where is the segment director and how come he wasn't paying attention. Maybe the host didn't know how to say Tenchi, but you would think that the person responsible for producing the segment would have heard Mr. Nakamura's multiple pronunciations and corrected the host. And they could have checked the spelling of his name, too, especially since it was Japanese. You can bet they would have spelled Rob Liefeld's name right. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

Then, later that day, I was reading a copy of a major film magazine, which just so happened to have a small section about anime in it. This person went on to say that there is a rumor that Disney may soon strike an arrangement with a Japanese animation studio. Now, I should point out that this is the October issue of this magazine, and the Disney-Tokuma deal, to which the rumor is alluding, took place in late July! Talk about behind the times.

The article further goes on to discuss Otomo's next project, which is "tentatively titled MEMORIES" and is rumored to have three segments. Now, the rough cut of MEMORIES premiered at Anime Expo 95, and it was shown subtitled at Anime Expo 96. It was released in Japan in January, and is set to be released in the U.S. once someone purchases the rights. Thus, this project is far from being in the rumor stages, and is most certainly not 'tentatively' titled.

Obviously this person was working off of some really old information. But what bothers me is that no one even bothered to check. Mistakes are one thing, but if these were rated on a scale of disasters, these would be Hindenbergs instead of a two-car pile up on the interstate.

My point is that if you're going to cover something, you've got to make sure that your information is current, or at least not months and years old. The media needs to wake up and realize that most anime fans are smarter than they give them credit for.

Ex animo,

Charles McCarter
Publisher/Editor in Chief

Charles McCarter

Keith Rhee

Chad Kime

Peter Cahill
Roderick Lee
Charles McCarter

Peter Cahill
Eugene Cheng
Ken Cho
Eri Izawa
Mark Johnson
Roderick Lee
Egan Loo
Charles McCarter
Maria Muñoz
Taku Otsuka
Keith Rhee
Orin Starchaser

Chris Kohler
Tom Larson
Eugene Moon
Mark Simmons

Dave Van Cleef
Geir Friestad
Chad Kime

Eric "Scanner" Luce

The SPJA (Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation) and OBJECTIVE CONSULTING INC. for donating server space and making this magazine possible.

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