This issue is all about anime soundtracks – (not to mention having Akira on the cover to get additional sales.) For awhile, I was heavily into soundtracks – Hellsing TV and Noir were in CDs that were in my car constantly back then. Now, I fast-forward the opening and endings to get the show. I try to make use of the time I have allotted to watch anime. Sure I love music, but these days it’s lo-fi alt rock and Jonathan Coulton.
This issue is about soundtracks, but the ads are in heated competition for the naming of the genre
ANIME!
JAPANIMATION!
Pioneer finally got someone with design sense to create a modern ad. Sure there’s still too much copy, but the layout is so much better than before.
Their mantra is “Anime – Any Way You Want It!
Books Nippan – said ‘Wait a minute buddy’ and their ad stated:
“NIPPAN – Welcomes you to JAPANIMATION!”
I remember that in college in Lubbock, Texas, the Hastings had an “Anime” section and the Blockbuster had a “Japanimation” section.
I would love it some one familiar with the battle of categorization would post in the comments section for further explanation to us all.
Once we get to 1998 – (I’m going chronological on this project-no skipping) I’ll have some convention badges and programs to post. Before that, I thought this page from the issue “Anime Expo Diary” gives a great perspective.
To end this magazine…three more ADV sex pot ads. “New Cutey Honey” “Devil Hunter Yohko” and the debut ad for ADV’s new label SoftCel Pictures – “The New line of Adults Only Animation from A.D. Vision!”
I urge you to read the copy for the ad for Magical Twilight and Dragon Pink. Someone got carried away with the wit and fan service.
Gee, you make it sound like such a “war,” but it was actually just marketing mixed with passive aggression. CPM’s John O’Donnell coined the term Japanimation (or at least took credit for it) out of marketing necessity. The kids were already calling it anime, but retail buyers were the people he really had to sell to, and there was no way they were going to be able to say “anime” without butchering it. Japanimation was self-explanatory, and as CPM also distributed almost everybody else’s product to brick and mortar retailers at this point (only exceptions were Pioneer and Streamline), everyone else followed suit. It wasn’t till around 1998 or so that anime was finally big enough (and enough people pointed out that Japanimation sounded vaguely like a racial slur) that he finally started switching to “anime” — the other distributors had found other distribution and had long jettisoned the word. Most of the fans were repelled by the term from day one, and just treated anyone who used it unironically as newbies. Which was usually the case.