In Dirty Pair FLASH Episode #1, "Runaway Angel," Kei and Yuri are introduced as young 17 year-olds. Ironically named the 'Lovely Angels' after a famous 3WA team, Molly and Iris, the two are poster children for 3WA recruiting ac cidents. Yur is famous for ditching school to meet with her newest man, and Kei's suspension record gets longer by the second. While sneaking out, Yuri acquires a mysterious card. Soon they are inconveniently getting chased by the cops and some dastard ly business men...and the Lovely Angels hate to be late for a date. Look for a transformation scene using Yuri's sailor suit reminiscent of Sailor Moon.
"Darkside Angel" (DPF #2) has the Lovely Angels coming to the 'rescue' of an informant in the middle of a civil war between the Takushaka Highlands and the Mugaru. Unfortunately, the informant is the custody of famous assassin, Lady Flaya (AKA Miss Irene ). The Mugaru have obtained military aid from GNC and are preparing to obliterate their opponents. Unfortunately, Kei takes up a personal vendetta against Lady Flaya and inconveniently becomes involved in the war.
Flight 005 Conspiracy is classic Dirty Pair. Kei and Yuri reign magnificently in skintight 70's battle armor while solving the newest case that the 3Wa computer has deemed worthy of investigation. A shuttle flight between the planets of Dubahl, D olz, and Zahl has exploded. Suspiciously, none of the survivors among the 300 passengers have filed insurance claims. At the same time, an important scientist, Dornenschtern, is missing along with his family, and Dornenschtern's father-in-law has reques ted an investigation. Flirting, fighting, and philosophy rage in comic Dirty Pair Style.
Besides, the symbols the Nazis used are unique in German history, and deliberately so. The Swaztika was not used in Germany before. But the rise of Japanese militarism co-opted symbols of an older Japan, notably the sammurai's Bushido Code. Thus, the u se of Japanese regalia of World War II, and this loss exposed the madness of militarism. There is little desire to revisit it. Indeed, the post-war Japanese Constitution (framed with much input from the United States) prohibits military action abroad. For many people, World War II is more than mere history. We may recall the recent scuttling of the planned Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute as ample proof that emotions still run high for both Americans and Japanese. (Local angle: the curat er of the Smithsonian is former Berkeley Chancellor I. Michael Heyman.)
In fact, military stories do appear in anime and manga. The stories of this genre do not glorify militarism; wars and militarism are depicted as the folly they are. These stories often examine the nature of being a soldier. They depict identifiable hum an beings , not storm troopers, serving in very nasty, ugly, immoral wars. They may occasionally be heroic, or anti-heroic; it is their superiosrs who are often stupid, foolish, greedy, or cowardly. Analogous stories for Americans could include M*A*S *H, Dispatches, The Forever War, China Beach, and All Quiet On The Western Front. One notable example is The Bridge Over The River Kwai, a story about British POWs in a Japanese labor camp, which was popular both in the U.S.A. and Japan .
In short, Japanese military sybols carry a far more complex and subtle meaning for Japanese audiences than do German and Nazi military symbols. You will see an example of this in our February 27 showing of The Cockpit.
Think about it...Lum is responsible for blowing up Tombiki-cho more than once...Leona shot up the Mayor's office...Ryouko is just a Viking in a Kimono...And the Dirty Pair...well, the point is that none of these females have ever been properly punished (r ead: executed by slow torture) for transgressions that amount to war crimes.
Her's why: Sexism. Men are supposed to be fundamentally competent in anime. Dark Schneider, Brenten, Tatewaki Kuno... Okay, maybe not so competent, but note how when they get a little out of control or just plain screw up, punishment is swift and pain ful. Schneider is roundly hated, Brenten gets chastised by pretty much everyone and Kuno ends up unconscious. Women engaging in similar feats can make like God-f**king-zilla and maybe--just maybe--they'll get a tongue lashing. (Although Leona shot up a n office when they tried even to do that.)
This disgusts any right-thinking American! Such anime gives viewers the wrong ideas about how we truly value people and leads to social and moral corruption! Anime should reflect those universally and inherently good values held by all modern descendant s of the White Male European Enlightenment: truth, justice, equality, democracy, and human rights... with it's inevitable consequence of dogmatic ideologies like Christianity and Liberalism. This kid of selfish egotism has led to the raping of the Earth , the loss of Vietnam and the S&L crisis. Plus those annying moralizing groups butting into other people's business like Operation Rescue and Amnesty International and--[[SLAP!]]
Sorry...my point is, there oughta be some incompetent and blameless males who get away with anything. It's only fair.
By Raymond Lew
To start with you will need a computer account such as UCLink or OCF. To use FTP, all you have to do is type "FTP [address]", where [address] is much like the domain names of E-mail addresses; for example, "venice.tcp.com". Once connected to the remote computer, you will be prompted for a login. since you want to access the FTP site, type "anonymous" as your login. After this you will be asked for your e-mail address. Type it in, but be careful, since you won't be able to see what you're typing.
If you've been granted access (some sites have restrictions based on the time of day and number of users already logged on), you need just two UNIX commands to navigate the site's files: "cd [directory]", which changes directories, and "dir", which lists the contents of the current directory. To transfer a file to your account, use "get [filename]" (remember that UNIX considers upper- and lower-case letters to be different.) To end your connection, type "bye".
A few things to keep in mind: Watch your quota. every computer account has a disk space quota which you may only exceed temporarily before penalties are applied. Type "quota" to check your maximum limit and your current usage. Move or delete any FTP'd files as soon as possible if you run afoul of the quota. FTP site addresses can be found on USENET (for anime, rec.arts.anime.ifo) or printed in publications such as this. For anime fans, good sites to visit are venice.tcp.com (with files in pub/anime- manga/sorted_, ftp.std.com (fan-fiction, in /archives/anime-fan-works), and server.berkeley.edu. If you're looking for something specific, the program "archie" can help find sites; just type "archie [name]" and this program will locate suitable FTP sites , if any.
General info about Earthquakes in Japan: http://www.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
U.S. government hot line number for American inquiring about friends or relatives in Japan: (202) 647-0900. To find out about U.S. military personnel in Japan: (703) 697-5737
Net News
fj.misc; fj.misc.earthquake (mainly in Japanese); fj.misc.earthquake.people;
fj.sci.geo; kansai.misc; tnn.disasters.earthquake; soc.culture.japan;
sci.geo.earthquakes
Anime Expo's Guest of Honor
The Guest of Honor at Anime Expo this year will be Satoshi Urushibara. He has worked as character designer/production supervisor on Plastic Little and Bubblegum Crisis episode 7, and was key animator for Five Star Stories. He has also worked on Record o
f Lodoss War and Crying Freeman.
Manga Entertainment Releases
Some of Manga Entertainment's planned upcoming releases: Febrary 28, Macross Plus Volume 1 and Appleseed; March 21, Orgus 02 Volume 1 and Black Magic M-66; April 18, Dominion II Volume 1 and Giant Robo Volume 1; May 23, Macross Plus Volume 2 and Devilman
Volumes 1 and 2.
Cal-Animage Adds to Tape Library
Beginning this week (although in limited supply) Cal-Animage will add the following titles to the library: Bastard 1-4, Bastard 5-6, City Hunter--Bay City Wars, I Can Hear the Sea (aka Sound of the Ocean), LoGH 1-4 (more to come), Villigust 1-2, Yotod
en.
By Trulee Lee
Playing off our weekly showing, let's examine a new trend in anime. Of course it might seem paranoid, but have you noticed that the women in anime are getting more and more unrealistically proportioned? They've always been a little, er, huskier than the average female, but now anime seems to be following our society's (and the media's) crazy and unhealthy ideal of women!
Let's look at the Dirty Pair. Now, in Dirty Pair Flash, Kei and Yuri actually look passably seventeen (as opposed to traditional Dirty Pair, where by no strech of the imagination could they possibly be nineteen) but they are humongously developed. In th e tranformation scene, Kei's already formidable chest gains a few more inches in girth, while Yur's strategically torn sailor suit abandons her for glorified underwear. (Of course we are used to seeing the Lovely Angels in underwear.)
But the trend I'm talking about is the grotesque reformation of anime women. Unless I'm mistaken, Kei and Yuri went on a crash diet. now, while they were buxom in the original Dirty Pair, at least they looked like REAL WOMEN. Generously hipped, with th ighs and REAL waists, one could regard the classic Dirty Pair with the comforting thought that if they were most chesty than most, at least they were equally healthy looking all around. Now they have thighs like a prepubescent, but they do not have propo rtionally thinner chests.
This phenomenon is not limited to the Dirty Pair. Akane used to be quite a bit heavier - she's obviously lost a lot of weight too. Sure, anime women have always looked older than their age (Ayukawa Madoka from K.O.R. never looked like an eighth grader), but at least they were realistically thin. The new anime that's out (Maross Plus, DP Flash, Ah! My Goddess!) features women who, while they may be a little buffer, are also a good ten pounds lighter. Meanwhile, the average real woman hasn't gott en any lighter; to the contrary, she's gotten heavier.
Has Twiggy taken over the world? Will anime join in the media onslaught that turns normal girls into bulimics and anorexics? The first step towards recovery from this dangerous trend is to be aware of it. Protest! Demand the return of the archetypal w oman.
You haven't witnessed anime until you've seen KOR! Come watch the adventures of Kasuga, Ayukawa (the otaku dream girl!), and Hikaru, as a poor high school boy tries to sort out his wild life as an ESPer. The romantic-comedy (48 total eps + OVAs + movie) series is perhaps one of the most known anime ever drawn. It's a perfect Valentine treat!
Cal Animage (animage@server.berkeley.edu)