Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - In Praise of Nerdiness
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aluria
 Posts: 367 Location: New Westminster, B.C., Canada |
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Although I am a fan who didn't really get into the anime scene till after 2000, I heard about Otaku no Video years ago. Man, the Daicon animations sound quite interesting, wish I could see them.
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UtenaAnthy
 Posts: 694 |
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I found them on another site than the ones listed already, so they don't seem that rare to me.
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Tyrenol
Posts: 398 Location: Northern California |
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We don't have royalty in the US anymore. Steve Pearl should've been called the "Fan-CEO" or the "Fan-Senator."
Errrr... Enough jokes. This is yet another tragic loss. I don't know if I can call the good old days "the good old days" either. I've only met a few people who are nice enough to share their anime. (One person who ran the local anime club was even nice enough to let me transform her toys.) But my local club was more of a "put-down center" than an actual club. It was hard for me to share my views of anime (mainly Ranma 1/2) at the nearby anime conventions I used to go to. And (knowing what I know now about Gainax), I consider "Otaku no Video" a chronicle of a miserable main character who'd let his life pass by in order to fulfill his dream. As always, my blame goes to the top; the uncompromising anime industry who caters to the depressed than help lift up everyone's spirits. And I doubt that there's a recordable period of time long enough there isn't as much cynicism and what not. Saying, "Remember back in the days when..." when the mindset is, "Screw those 'back in the days!' They're gone! Get with the program!" The reality is: We're happy until we have to take responsiblity. Then we're miserable. Here's a view I would like to share: I'd rather be the "Otaku no Video's" Kubo who chased after the nice butt of the tennis girl. As opposed to the Kubo that he was in that series. |
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pinguino
Posts: 4 Location: los angeles, ca |
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very very touching article, and a great tribute.
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UtenaAnthy
Posts: 694 |
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aluria, they are on video streaming websites.
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Swissman
Posts: 768 Location: Switzerland |
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Justin, this was a great article. I think you perfectly nailed how I as an old-school anime fan think and mostly feel about the "good old times" today. I've become quite jadded in recent years too and I miss this newness about anime which impressed me for many years and the resulting excitement and urge to participate my experience with other fans. Oh, the excitement of discovering new anime/manga, the excitement of ordering expensive stuff like cels via mail order, the excitement of getting the newest japanese shows taped from tv from a japanese penpal, and so on.
Today I just have found old swiss fanzines for which I have written articles about old school anime like Orange Road with a kind of fresh passion and commitment I don't possess anymore, probably due to my jaddedness and alienization of today's anime & fandom. Concerning the shift in today's fandom: Back in 1994 I participated to a local anime screening in Geneva. We watched Wings of Honneamise and Kiki's Delivery Service via Laserdisc and without subtitles. Imagine that: A room filled with fifty and more people, everyone staring with excitement at the screen, watching those two movies *without any subtitles* and without any knowledge of Japanese. Todays, such a screenig is simply unimaginable. I get complaints from people when I show anime without german subtitles or dub at our local convention; and any anime older than 2003 is not really wished nor appreciated anymore. Little by little, things like that kill some of the remaining flame inside of me. Ah, Otaku no Video, that brings me back to good memories. Back in my highschool days I had a friend who called me jokingly "Kubo" and I calld him "Tanaka". Trivia: The Daicon III opening is also an hommage to manga creator Azuma Hideo. Look at the character designs of the girl and the other characters and compare them with the characters you can see here.
Your story is similar to mine. As a swiss, I watched a lot of old school shows in french television and started later on collecting tapes at 17. Now I'm close to 32. For the first two years my collection consisted mostly of those well-known dubbed manga video tapes like Akira, Project A-ko, Venus Wars, Vampire Hunter D, 3x3, ect. I still have those at home but haven't watched most of them for more than a decade now (sometimes, it's better not to disturb nostalgy with harsh reality). |
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WorldofElegance
 Posts: 42 Location: St. Joseph, Missouri |
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This was a brilliant article. I had never heard of Steve Pearl before reading this, but he seemed like an amazing fan and wonderful guy who deserves an article as beautiful as this. My condolences to his family and friends, the loss of such an amazing guy must be very tragic.
Thank you for educating me on Daicon IV...I have seen the opening to Densha Otoko numerous times, and I've even been watching the anime that's based on the bunny girl in the opening. I had always heard that it was a tribute to old-school otakudom, and to see where it originated brought tears to my eyes. I'm a newer anime fan (started with Ah! My Goddess manga around 1996) but that old Gainax animation moved me so. Thanks for educating the newcomers on older days!!! |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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Daicon is more legendary than obscure for most otaku. Something that would be rare would be more along the lines of Robotech/Megazone 23 rehashed: The Untold Story (which I saw in the movie theater back in 91) or Rintaro's Lupin the 8th which I believe was shown at Baycon back in the 80s but was never officially released in Japan. |
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hamtaroboy2006
Posts: 56 |
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You know this article makes me think that maybe shows like Genshiken and Lucky Star will be the marker for this generation of fans.
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The Unknown 24
Posts: 112 |
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Really good article, It does bring back some memories of my past anime collecting.
I never got to go to any conventions, I actually was not really interested in going. But anyway It was true that anime was really hard to get, you were lucky if you had a comic book shop or book store that sold bootleg video tapes(fan subbed or Japanese only aka "raw"). Then if you bought them you were lucky if you got a good copy!! You were even more luckier if you lived near a Japanese video store or you knew people who were doing the actual fan subbing. What I think that what a lot of the older anime fans are actually complaining about is that feel you had when anime was rare here in the USA. That feeling of having and watching something that no one else has even seen or heard of. something really special in it's own way!! That feeling is gone!!! Now as we all know, you can find it everywhere. and now anime is common place right along with everything else. And so many anime titles are out now that it is kinda hard to keep up with. But me I don't let none of this bother me, not at all. I still (slowly, due to paying bills,life,etc...) keep on collecting my favorite animes. Hopefully one day they all will see a region 1 dvd release. I've been watching anime since I was a child, and been collecting it since I was in high school(1987). Thank GOD for :Japan and the anime industry :the japanese video stores here in the USA :the fan subbers :the internet and all the anime sites on it :the anime industry for realizing that there was a markert for anime in the USA and other countries. :and mainly all the anime fans world wide that continue to share all these wonderful stores!!!! All in all, I encourage all of you to keep on collecting, watching, and sharing anime with others. If and when you feel kinda bored with it, take a break and go watch some live action tv shows and movies. then slowly make your way back!! Anime is a way of Life!!!!! The Unknown 24  
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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My condolences to Steve's friends and family.
About Otaku no Video and Daicon. What the others said are true - they can be found in streaming sites. That's where I found about them. I haven't watched both yet though, but I put them in my favorites because they looked interesting. |
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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Randall, I bet you were nodding your head along with every word of the opening of this Buried Treasure. I know I definitely was.
For me, I suppose I'm lucky that the excitement of discovering new series I like hasn't worn off. I still got to laugh my head off and ring up my crew when I found Dokuro-chan. But I too feel a little set aside from newer fans raised on the new ways of doing things. I think there's this feeling that we're not all on the same page anymore. A convention I attended recently, while fun, seemed rather hollow at times. With panels devoted to glomping, con dating, and surviving the con weekend, it almost felt more like people were there to "do the con thing" instead of be there for the sake of -gasp- anime enthusiasm. I've said it before on these forums, but I feel these days that since the definition of fan seems to be changing in these days of memes and digisubs, that I may in fact no longer be a fan but something altogether more earnest. I, and I hope other "former fans" from my generation come to identify themselves this way too, am an enthusiast. Anime Enthusiast. Try out the title, try out the meaning. It's anime that excites us, that compells us to gather for discussion, dissection, comparison, and collecting. I never had the pleasure of meeting the American Otaking, only knew of his reputation, but he always struck me as the truest sort of enthusiast. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he made some of the greatest strides to reach out to share that enthusiasm. When you have a passion for anything - and most of us geeks are passionate people - you get a chance to show that passion, and to share it. Steve shared his passion with the whole world through sheer enthusiasm. I only hope that maybe someday the jaded new breed - and even a couple of us jaded old timers - come to realize that it's okay to be an enthusiastic, passionate bunch of geeks. I've lived my whole life as one, and it's worked out pretty good so far. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I downloaded a 12.5 minute avi containing the Daicon III and IV openings from Usenet a few years ago. I'd be happy to give it to anyone interested.
EDIT: This is an LD rip btw, according to the filename. It's fairly LQ though. |
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Enoshima
Posts: 1 |
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Great article.
I didn't know that there was already fansubbing back then. I've only been into anime for a year and a half. one of the few titles I actually recognize is Nausicaa. When I downloaded it, I didn't know it was that old (luckily) but when I saw it, I was hooked, I've been downloading those oldschool movies ever since. |
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ichido reichan
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The daicon films aren't the rarest, actually, those are pretty mainstream nowadays, try to find "Kujira josephina" or "Jacky of the mount tallac" if you love old school anime with a touch of the old school "little lulu" quality, these two titles will melt your heart away, Josephina is a little flying whale that lives in a cup of water on a night table in the room of the main boy of the series "santy" and she takes him to many places and so many adventures like your classic "go to hell to rescue the grandma that died yesterday" well, the twist of the series is that the kid was twisted in the head and only he saw that whale and the magic world where they live...
The other is a little bear that makes friends with a little indian boy and the clash of the differences between two worlds and two species, the series are so good that it won the prize for educational support of the ministry of education of tokyo in 1978, if you guys ever had the chance to check these series, both anre unavailiable in dvd in japan, but people on youtube posted a few links. Josefina la ballena jacky el osito Look for those in the search link...and tell me what do you think. |
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