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Cementing my rep as an Anime "Old Fart"
06-02-2008, 07:24 AM
Okay. I did some contributions to this article on the EDC fan club of the
80s and early 90s. Specifically, the writer (and a friend), Dave Merrill sent me and some of the others involved a series of questions which we responded to
via email. Some of my responses got pretty in-depth and selections were used as quotes used verbatim (and properly credited) within the article itself.
Mind you - this article has seen some editing. The original appeared on Dave's "Let's Anime" blog**, but apparently has been removed due to this more official web publication. If you
want to see the original draft as it was sent to me for approval, I can post that, plus my answers to his original questions verbatim and unexpurgated.
There's some weird stuff that happened back in the 80s when most of you were in pre-school. ^_^
(edit: Oh! And do take the time to look over the whole Star Blazers site that the article is hosted with. It's been re-designed of late and is MUCH easier
to navigate. LOTS of neat stuff there!)
( **EDIT: Oops! I apparently have faulty memory! (Yeah like THAT's never happened before...) It never appeared there. I must've been thinking of
something else, maybe Steve Harrison's article on Space Fanzine Yamato or something. )
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Wow... Talk about ZERO interest...
No one pays attention to the 'old man' whos retelling stories ![[Image: wink.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif)
But its interesting to hear about how anime got its start here in the states
There is no coincidence, only necessity....
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sorry, starblazers was before my time. And therefore holds minimal interest for me. Just to renforce your old man status ^_^
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
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Quote: sweno wrote:
sorry, starblazers was before my time. And therefore holds minimal interest for me. Just to renforce your old man status ^_^
Uh, yeah. Same here. My main exposure to the Gamilons was Symphony of the Sword. XD
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I dont need to be told about it, I lived it. 
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
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Starblazers was the first anime of my adult life. In my senior year of high school I had a little B&W TV in my bedroom, and in the mornings as I got ready for school I watched whatever was on. Until I stumbled across the first episode of Starblazers on the day it premiered in the NYC market... after which I never missed it again.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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WARNING. You have pressed Lurker's anime hot button. Please step back if you wish to avoid nostalgia.
I was ten years old, in the winter of 1980, when I first encountered Star Blazers.
Up until then, the best thing I'd ever seen on TV -- animated or live action -- was the Tarzan cartoon of the seventies (the one whose writers had actually read all the books).
I'd seen Battle of the Planets, sure, but let's face it, Sandy Frank ripped the guts out of Gatchaman and showed us its corpse preserved in formaldehyde. I had no idea what "anime" was.
We were in a cross country trip, moving from Colorado to California, and had stopped to spend the night in a family friend's house in LA. I didn't
know the friend all that well, so while he and my parents talked politics I had nothing to do but channelsurf looking for something kid-friendly.
And there it was.
The Comet Empire had just crushed Earth's space fleet and destroyed the Moon to make their point. The government
had surrendered. Only the Argo remained to face the foe, and Derek Wildstar had just rammed it into Desslok's
cruiser, and was proceeding, badly wounded and poorly bandaged, into the enemy ship to finish him off. As the blue guy stood there daring our hero to pull the
trigger, Derek collapsed from the pain; before Desslok could do anything, Nova rushed in to stand between them, refusing to move away...
And rather than finish them off, Desslok relents, tells them the Empire's weakness, and leaves in grand Noble Enemy style.
...I had never seen anything like it. It was awe-inspiring and brilliant and I wanted MORE.
AND I HAD NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS. Couldn't find it in the TV Guide. For whatever reason, the show's name
managed to elude me. I didn't even know whether it was a movie or a TV series or WHAT?! And then we were gone, hundreds of miles north of the station
that had aired it, to a region that wasn't showing it at all.
Ten years old, mind, at a time when Usenet had only just been assembled. I didn't even have the resources that
might have allowed me to find out what it had been.
But it was BURNED INTO MY BRAIN. And when one of the local channels finally begain airing something called
Star Blazers, two long years later, I wept with sheer joy.
Perhaps fortunately, I was too young and too broke to get into any formal fandom, although I certainly heard of the EDC. But from that day forth, I have
counted myself an anime fan.
--Sam
"We'll fight the Comet Empire, battle through the raging fire, filled with the hope that Earth will survive --
We'll keep peace alive with our Star Blazers!"
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I don't think it was ever broadcast in my area.
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Early-AM Saturdays [After the farm report, and before the first first-run network cartoons] where I grew up at... age 4 to 5, along with G-Force/Battle of the Planets... I know the version I first saw had 7-Zark-7.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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I never really watched TV much. Mostly because every weekend for just about -ever-, we'd all go up to the Mountains and work/play/spend the weekend up
there. There was a small TV that got about half a channel, but it was largely unused. That and I spend more time on the computer than at the TV. So, this was
probably both before my time, and outside my sphere of purveyance. Sounds like it made favorable impressions of others though, which is good.
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
Through the magic of trackbacks, I appear!!
Actually, the EDC article at Starblazers.com was something Tim specifically asked for; it never appeared at Let's Anime. I think the 'prestige' of
writing for the Starblazers website helped spur me to take more time and do more research than I would have normally done; if it'd been for Let's Anime
I would have just half-assed my way through it like I do with most things.
I had a lot of anecdotes and data that I had to boil down into something workable, and Tim did further editing to whip it into a pretty decent and readable
article. So far nobody's informed me of any glaring omissions or factual errors, thank goodness.
It was a lot of fun to take the trip down memory lane and it was great to get back in touch with the old EDC crew. Thanks to Logan for helping to make it
happen!
Dave
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Quote: Actually, the EDC article at Starblazers.com was something Tim specifically asked for; it never appeared at Let's Anime. I think the 'prestige'
of writing for the Starblazers website helped spur me to take more time and do more research than I would have normally done; if it'd been for Let's
Anime I would have just half-assed my way through it like I do with most things.
Oops! I edited my original post to reflect the correction, Dave. Thanks!
Quote:
It was a lot of fun to take the trip down memory lane and it was great to get back in touch with the old EDC crew. Thanks to Logan for helping to make it
happen!
Same here, Capn' Dave! And you're welcome!
Quote: Ten years old, mind, at a time when Usenet had only just been assembled. I didn't even have the resources that
might have allowed me to find out what it had been.
But it was BURNED INTO MY BRAIN. And when one of the local channels finally begain airing something called
Star Blazers, two long years later, I wept with sheer joy.
You would hardly be alone in that sentiment, my friend. In fact I've heard someone else use the EXACT same words (BURNED INTO MY BRAIN) before
in regards to their impression of Star Blazers. I may have used it myself. I'm seriously touched by your remembrances.
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