Issue 9 - Yipe!

Cby Karen DickVERY “OLD SCHOOL” ANIMECOSTUMES (1979-1981)Come with me to theprehistory of Cosplay in thelate 1970’s. A time when:• We called anime“Japanimation” and wereforced to watch it inafternoon TV time slotsbecause program executivesreasoned that “cartoons arefor kids.”• DVRs did not exist,VCRs were available butexpensive ($400-$1000),and individual blankvideotapes were $20. Ifyou wanted to record yourfavorite anime, it was asignificant investment.• Personal computers andthe internet did not exist,so there was no easy wayto research your favoriteanime, meet other fans, orpurchase anime-relateditems.• Specialized animeconventions did not exist,so anime fans wore theircostumes to general sciencefiction, media, and comicconventions, often to thebewilderment of otherattendees and masqueradejudges.• Anything manga or animerelated (books, records,videotapes, etc.) was onlyavailable from specialtystores in the “Japantown”area of several major cities,and selection was poor.Special orders to get itemsfrom a particular movie orseries were difficult.• Specialty wigs, especially incolors not found in nature,were extremely hard toobtain.• Often, to see a particularanime, a club orconvention would have torent a 35mm undubbed/unsubtitled print of thefilm and show it with atranslator in the room todo real-time interpretationof the dialog. (My favoriteinstance of this was whenthe 1983 World ScienceFiction conventionplayed one of theSPACE BATTLESHIPYAMATO movies.Toward the end of themovie, the captain of theYamato gave a long andimpassioned speech, whichthe translator abbreviatedto “Don’t screw up.”)I grew up in SouthernCalifornia and was privilegedto see all sorts of anime whenit first hit U.S. airwaves inthe 1960’s: ASTRO BOY,SPEED RACER, MARINEBOY, PRINCE PLANET,GIGANTOR, 8 th MAN,AMAZING 3, etc. ASTROBOY remains a favorite. Thehighlight of the 1978 WorldScience Fiction conventionfor me was to be able to seeuncut episodes of ASTROBOY in the film room afternot having any access atall to them for 13 years.And my home office is stilldecorated with ASTROBOY collectibles.When the second waveof anime-based series hitthe U.S. airwaves a decadelater in the mid-1970’s,they failed to capturemy heart and attentionin quite the same way astheir 1960’s counterparts,in part due to clumsydubbing and rescoring, andin part to extensive storyrewrites to remove violencefor an American audience.GATCHAMAN was watereddown into BATTLE OFTHE PLANETS, andSTARZINGER was turnedinto SPACEKETEERS (partof the FORCE FIVE lineup).Then along came STARBLAZERS (the Americaninterpretation of SPACEBATTLESHIP YAMATO).I was introduced to the showin spring of 1979 by TerryCampbell. Terry workedvarying shifts at a localconvenience store, often hadhis afternoons free to watchTV, and had discoveredSTAR BLAZERS whileflipping channels one day. Iwas attending college in themornings and evenings andworking a part-time job forthe local school district inthe afternoons, so I usuallycould not watch the showin person. VCRs were stillin their expensive infancy, asdescribed above, so I did notown one, but my friend DaveMeyers did, so I persuadedhim to record the episodesof STAR BLAZERS for me.Each week, I would shellout $18 for a new VHS tapefrom the local Photomat store(which was the lowest pricefor a single tape at the time),and hand it to Dave, whowould then set his VCR to