The purpose of this trial
What has Animage‘s three-year history done for the anime world? This topic was discussed at the editorial meeting on the occasion of the third anniversary. (After following the world of anime for three years, there were bound to be achievements and mistakes.) And so, this special feature was decided. It is titled “Animage Judgment.” In short, the aim is to evaluate the achievements as achievements and judge the mistakes as mistakes.
The format is to honestly ask 41 witnesses about Animage while looking back on its three-year history. First, we start with a conversation between Hashimoto-kun (23 years old, university student) and Sasaki-san (22 years old, editorial assistant), who were anime fans from before Animage was launched!!
Animage Prehistory: October 1974 to April 1978
The anime world and its surroundings
Before Animage was launched, anime fans collected materials in their own “world”.
Testimony 1: Ryoko Sasaki vs Shinji Hashimoto
Hashimoto: Before Animage was launched, anime fans really were a minority.
Sasaki: That’s right. It felt like it was enough to have one or two “comrades” in your class.
Hashimoto: What made me become an anime fan was the first episode of Yamato on TV. Before that, I liked mecha battles, but at the time, the robot stuff was full of lies, so I didn’t like it and I was mainly building plastic models. Then Yamato came out and I was surprised. It was a “simulated war drama” with a World War II feel, so it had an irresistible appeal for mecha and military fans.
Sasaki: I liked drawing pictures. So when I saw Yamato, I thought, “Wow, how did they make this?” and that’s what made me a fan.
Hashimoto: I wanted to somehow tell everyone how interesting Yamato was, so I called out to everyone at school and assembled a group of about 40 people. It was like the beginning of a fan club.
Sasaki: Anyway, it was good to become a fan, but it was a time when there was no reference material or information. You couldn’t get anything.
Hashimoto: The design sheets were really valuable back then. “Ordinary People” (laughs) could never get them. There wasn’t even a single anime shop.
Sasaki: In my case, I was glued to the TV and just copied the images on paper.
SIDEBAR (BLUE BOX)
Testimony 2: Hisao Saito (Tokyo Movie, Production)
Thanks to the “Yamato boom,” the number of anime titles increased, but on the other hand, the quality of anime production declined. I imagine that in time, the number of good anime titles will decrease, and only those who can produce good works will survive. If I didn’t think that way, I wouldn’t be able to continue working.
when Animage came out, I thought “I wonder if they’ll be able to make and sell a magazine like this, or if it’ll disappear after a while” (laugh). But the circulation has really increased. I think Animage has made a huge contribution in terms of making animation known to the world. Theaters are now attracting more customers than before, and adults are now taking their children to see anime. Good works attract customers. I think this is a good trend.
However, the current anime industry has a tendency to think that it’s okay to make anything they want. From my point of view, I think that “making the best effort possible within the limits of the schedule, regardless of whether the work is the best or not” is an essential attitude for anime production.
Top image below: Nostalgic hand-drawn setting materials owned by Sasaki
Hashimoto: I had no choice but to make the materials myself, so I would take pictures of the TV screen with a camera, record the sound from the TV, etc.
Sasaki: When I went to an anime fan hangout, there was someone who somehow had the designs, and I asked them to let me copy them. But it was a lot of money to copy them, so it was a pain. I also copied them with a pencil.
Hashimoto: I think that was also when Toei Animation’s screenings were popular. Everyone got animation paper and posters there.
Sasaki: Many anime fans at that time wanted to be animators themselves, so I was very interested in how anime was made. I often went to production studios. I became friends with them after going there many times, and I was able to get original drawings and cels.
Hashimoto: Right. They gave things to me for free, so much that it was hard to carry it all.
Sasaki: When they wouldn’t give them to me, I’d go to the production neighborhood on my days off and rummage through the trash. (Laughs) I can’t imagine doing that now. So I would draw from the cels I’d collected and create setting materials.
Hashimoto: Anyway, back when Yamato was on, that’s how fans got to know each other, and fan clubs started popping up. When the first Yamato movie came out, a lot of fan clubs were working hard to promote it.
Sasaki: Everyone was helping put up posters, and it was like a grassroots movement.
Hashimoto: It was fun just to have people who liked anime get together and participate in something.
Sasaki: People would stay up all night to see Yamato, just to get to know all the different people there.
Hashimoto: I was so pure, so idealistic. (Laughs) No matter what my parents said, it didn’t bother me at all.
Sasaki: It felt like my parents had already given up on me. (Laughs)
Hashimoto: Was it around that time that the Yamato Special Issue of OUT came out?
Sasaki: Yes. That was a surprise. It was rare to see anime in a magazine, but they even included the design settings. Only fans would do something like that.
Hashimoto: The only information about Yamato in magazines was in the issue of Fantoche with Starsha on the cover, Shonen Sunday, and a few other little bits in children’s magazines.
Sasaki: OUT was groundbreaking because it had color pages. That issue was a premium item.
Hashimoto: Having materials in that format meant there were many people who had the same material. That was kind of a shocking event. And then the Yamato Roman Album came out.
Sasaki: That decisively changed Yamato fans, didn’t it?
Hashimoto: Yeah. At that point, I felt like there was nothing left to do in fan clubs and doujinshi. That’s why the Roman Album was also called the “fan club killer.” (Laughs)
Sasaki: It seems that because that book came out, a lot of fan clubs broke up and doujinshis went bust.
Hashimoto: I think it definitely had a big impact on fans who quietly collected materials. At the same time, new fans, such as voice actor fans, started to grow. I think it was around the time the Roman Album was released that the number of local fans increased.
Sasaki: After that, just when it seemed like the boom had died down a bit, Animage came out.
Hashimoto: It was about a year after the Roman Album. At first I thought, “What is this?” I mean, I was a little skeptical about whether it would be profitable to publish a magazine every month that only contained anime information. Also, the list price of 580 yen was quite high.
Sasaki: At that time, my monthly allowance was 2000 yen.
Hashimoto: I felt like it was just a magazine with photos. But I think it was very valuable for local fans. In the provinces, you couldn’t get ahold of the same kind of materials as you could in Tokyo.
Sasaki: Also, it stimulated the boom, which had been dying down a bit after Yamato ended.
Hashimoto: I agree with that. After Yamato, the fans who would have dispersed somehow stayed on as anime fans.
Sasaki: The appearance of Animage brought in new fans, and it might be fair to say that there was a clear generational shift.