I have been involved in anime-fandom for about 3 years. I have seen the rise of Manga Video, Anime UK the UK anime market develop. Now that I am about to leave anime fan publications, I have decided to look back at fandom and what has happened during my time.
I can remember a time when fans were happy to go to hunt round shops for butchered kiddie cut anime, and the fan's main moan was about cutting anime for a kids market, at the time fan-copied anime were 27th generation copies of stuff filmed in wobbly vision (well it seemed like that). You had to guess who it was and also what they said, because of the very poor resolution and no subtitles or dubbing in a language that you understood.
What changed this has been Manga Video and the dual standard VCR, and a lot of work by the fans. When Manga Video started to release titles like Project A-Ko and Dominion and the fans all WOWED, and cheered (OK well almost). People also started to get dual standard VCRs and imported US subtitled tapes. And the subtitled vs dubbed debate started.
At first everyone was happy, wobbly vision was to be a thing of the past, but soon things weren't quite as rosy as we first thought. I think that this was partially due to the marketing policy of Manga Video, and also fans becoming more educated into the wide range of anime available in Japan. I will not enter into the debate, suffice it to say that Manga did not release what the anime fans wanted them to, or in their favourite format.
But whatever people say, Manga has raised public awareness of Anime, and some say that bad publicity is better than no publicity, but this is for you to decide. But we have some well educated anime fans now, who were introduced into the genre by MEL products.
And so fans could buy UK released anime but not the anime that they wanted, but the dual standard videos meant that we had easy access to a large pool of anime via the US and even Japan. Following MELs success, companies like Anime Projects, Kiseki and Western Connection have started to release more fan-orientated anime. The companies releasing subtitled material have found a certain amount of success in keeping costs down, to be able to make a profit, by selling fewer copies to a largely fan market.
Anime has become much more popular in the UK but I believe that it is a bit of a fad, which will die down, but when it does fandom will be much bigger than it used to be before MEL. And I feel that people like Anime Projects and Western Connection will continue to release subtitled anime, while people like MEL will move on to the new fad (Whatever that may be).
With people like Pioneer joining the market to make secondary profits in foreign countries where MEL has developed a market, the future for anime in the UK looks good. Today even at work people have heard about anime which certainly wasn't the case while I was at University.
Unfortunately quite a few fans can't handle the increase in popularity of anime, now wearing an Akira T-shirt doesn t signify that you are an avid anime fan, and I can understand this. When it was small it was ours, now it is in the hands of commercial companies more worried about profit than how wonderful anime is.
The reasons that I am leaving fan-publications are complex and related to the developments in the UK market. The first reason is time, reviewing takes a lot of time, and with more and more titles to review, and more fanzines to write for it is becoming too much. I have a lot of new projects that I would like to devote time to, these include Anthropomorphics-fandom, Internet, some personal stuff, and some undisclosed projects.
Reviewing doesn't make you any friends either, and the more titles the bigger the problem, as it is very easy to either upset the producers or your fellow anime friends. I have done both and when you upset people you care about its time to look closely at what you are doing.
Fans, being fans love their anime, and I have trodden on a few toes, which has caused me a fair amount of grief. I have certainly found myself being attacked for what I have thought of titles, and also my views of the UK market. I have always written what I have thought, rather than what people wanted me to write, so enough is enough.
The UK market has now become developed, and it is time for me to move on and also back. It's going to be fun getting back to my roots, watching stuff that I want to watch. At the moment I get sent a stack of tapes to watch, that I have to rather than want to watch. It will also be great to be able to write more letters, and explore the Internet. It will also give me more time to importing and convert the minority interest titles, that would never be released in the UK commercially, but are wonder pieces of anime.
Hopefully some of you reading this will take my place as a reviewer, as I bow out, but you will need a thick skin to earn your videos each month. If no-one takes my place then my editors will have a problem, but I have done my turn, now its time for yours. I will still continue to review the odd title, and now and again you may see an article by me. But otherwise farewell.