Here’s a crutch you have to deal with if the Japanese licensor only provides very few promotional images/covers for the international release. This doesn’t happen as often now, but it still exists.
Here’s what I’m getting at. Look at the cover and look at the back cover ad for the A-Ko Screensaver, the table of contents image and the first page of the cover story feature. Same image. It’s the best image for the brand and it might be the only good image you’ll get. You just have to live with it. Been there, done that. (The cover feature title is “Project A-Ko is A-Okay!” I love cheesy headline titles.
Sometimes reading these back issues can be a bummer. Case in point the Planet Anime ad. Planet Anime was a big anime store in Houston, I think they had multiple locations. I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. I’ve been to Houston twice. Once when I was little and once a couple of years ago for year two of OniCon. I only know about Planet Anime because they attended anime cons and I would chat with them sometimes in the dealers room. Planet Anime is no longer in business. 🙁
On a brighter note, Animerica debuts their Fan Art section. The precursor to DeviantArt.com back when they were only populated by the anime artist alley community. Were there Artist Alley in the mid 90’s cons? I’m curious to find out when Artist Alley became a mainstay in anime cons.
Click on the page with the call out feature “How To Order” to read the larger image of the page. I want to point out that in the early 90’s anime was difficult to find in hobby stores and close to impossible in mainstream retail stores. A lot of sales were direct to the anime company. Notice all the A.D. Vision and US Renditions VHS ads that give details on ordering by mail with shipping costs,forms and the address to order a catalog.
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