mae@aplvax.UUCP (07/14/83)
To answer the request for C/FO information: The Cartoon/Fantasy Organization or C/FO is an international animation fan club. There are chapters in several areas that meet monthly to watch video tapes of animated movies and tv shows. The club has a newsletter and many chapters have local newsletters. A one year membership in the main club is $10, local chapters set their own dues, if any. To join or get more information about specific local chapters, the central address is: The Cartoon/Fantasy Organization 401 South La Brea Ave. Inglewood, CA 90301 As for where you can go to see Japanese animated movies and tv, unfortunately not many places. Science fiction conventions sometimes show some, especially if there is a C/FO chapter in the area to organize it. Local tv stations in New York and LA have carried a few shows, subtitled. The Showtime cable network has shown a few 'movies', 1 to 1 1/2 hour shows made by combining episodes of a tv show, all violence removed or translated around by such methods as calling the fighting forces robots. The actual feature films, usually 2 to 2 1/2 hours long, have turned up in specialty movie theaters in large cities. If you are coming to the World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore, one of the video rooms there will be showing Japanese animation. The one recent show that has been reasonably translated for the American syndication market is Star Blazers. I don't know if it is showing anywhere now but it is available. This is a translation of the first two Space Cruiser Yamato serials, 26 parts each, from 1974 and 1978. In Japan, there has been a third serial on tv (1980) and 5 films, the most recent just released this past March. I have heard that the third serial is being translated but I haven't seen it in English yet. The story in each serial is just like the generic story Douglas Price described on the net - when you see the original version. The translation wrote itself into a corner at the end of the second serial by removing the death scenes so I don't know how the English version of the third serial will explain certain characters absence. Some trivia to think on: According to a list in the Sept. 1982 C/FO newsletter there were 115 animated science fiction/adventure shows on Japanese prime time tv between 1963 and 1982. Of the 26 in the 1960's 9 were translated for American release. In the 70's 6 out of 58 were translated and so far in the 80's none of the 31 new shows have made it over here. Obviously not all these would be worth seeing, but I still think we must be missing something. Mary Anne Espenshade, Midatlantic chapter, C/FO ... !umcp-cs!aplvax!mae