Download the Animation Liberation Magazine - Winter '07 edition

Animation Liberation Magazine 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Southern California Convention Map 6 

PMX Convention Review: 8 

LiN CLOVER 9 

Mikomicon Review 12 

Full Metal Alchemist: 

Scar as an allegory to Osama bin Laden 15 

Collector’s Corner: The ICE Kunion Catalogue 18 

Sac-anime: Overcoming the once-a-year blues 20 

Boycott: CMX! 22 

Chibi-Tokyo Presents: A Senshi-con Interview 26 

Reflection: Legend of Galactic Heroes 32 

Pages from the Past: Marionette Generation 36 

Glossary 38 

Pictures: Friends We Met Along the Way 39 


OUR MANIFESTO 

(About Us) 

ANIMATION LIBERATION (AL) was started by a 

group of friends from North County San Diego, 

California. Branching out from both the college 

anime clubs and discontent with today’s unfair 

market, we decided to present panels and become 

more active within the local anime community. 

Our first panel was done in January 2007 at Anime 

Los Angeles. Within that year, we traveled and 

presented panels in Arizona (Anizona), Northern 

California (Fanime, Sac-anime) and Nevada (Anime 

Vegas) well giving away over 4,000 dollars of 

m a n g a t o a t t e n d e e s a n d f a n s . 

Our main function was to critique exploitation 

found within the Manga/Anime market, while 

simultaneously promoting grassroots activism and 

small conventions. The end result was very 

political. Some heavy perspectives can be found 

here: some writers are communist, some writers are 

anarcho-leftist, and some writers are capitalist. 

Politics aside, I hope that all anime fans who read 

this will be entertained and consider the time spent 

worthwhile. 

Animation Liberation Magazine, Volume one, Issue one (V.1 #1).This publication may be may be 

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including 

photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without specific written 

permission from Animation Liberation Magazine. The views expressed herein are those of the authors, 

and not necessarily of the publishers. Publisher cannot be responsible for any unsolicited articles or 

materials, or the return of such items. Publisher cannot be held responsible for content. The information 

contained herein is for educational purposes only and is not intended as advice for self-treatment. 

Edmund Dulac “The Little Mermaid” (1911) Copyrighted to respective owners. This image is an 

illustration of art. The copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher/producer and/or 

artist(s) producing the work in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of character 

artwork qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law 

Unless otherwise noted, all articles are Copyleft 2007. Printed in the U.S.A 

LIBERATORS 

President: 

Austin Wright 

Staff Writers: 

Jacob Guevara 

Mathias Lewis 

Contributing Writers: 

Edgar Anzo 

Scott Carrasco 

Daniel Mendoza 

Special Thanks: 

Walter Bartel 

Hazel Chaz 

Nick Kurachi 

Rina-chan 

Ian Keen 

Jason Mills 

Bsaphire 

Misha Clive 

David Cirone 

Contact Us 

Email: 

president@animationliberation.com 

Website: 

www.animationliberation.com 


Letter from the Editor 

Hey guys! What’s up? This is the 2007 winter edition of Animation Liberation Magazine. 

We expect to keep the same themes found here for future releases: focusing on a boycott, 

listing the complete catalogue of a collection, shining light on some underappreciated or 

lesser known anime and manga, etc. 

For 2008, we have hopes of expanding even further than before, possibly visiting 

Washington and Idaho! There is a little niche in the anime scene where politics and ethics 

don’t really get discussed at much as they should, hopefully this magazine fills that need 

and contributes to the community. 

Within our first year, we have already made so many friends and had so many positive 

experiences! I would like to thank a few people who made this release possible: 

First and foremost, our friendship with the Chibi-Tokyo crew was worth its weight in 

gold. Without Scott, Edgar, and Dan we would not be here in the slightest. Their 

collective approach to conventions and the ideas and concepts we borrowed from them 

allowed A.L. to expand out and prevented us from dying off prematurely. No "thank 

you" written here would be good enough retribution for what they have done for us! 

Second, Thank you to Jacob and Mathias for investing so much of their time and effort 

into what initially was just a seemingly silly idea. Their writings practically make up 

two-thirds of all articles in this issue. Without them, A.L. would not be in print or half as 

successful as it is right now. 

Last but not least, appreciation goes out to the Mira Costa College Anime Club: we were 

born from them. Thank you to Eddie Kerns and Fred Steffy for single-handedly reviving 

and establishing the club back in 2003 and thanks to Johnny K. Wilson for managing it 

since then. The environment they created allowed us to become more educated in 

anime/manga and to attend conventions so much to the degree that we did. 

--Austin Wright 


Southern California Convention Map 

Below is a basic run down on all the major Southern California anime and related 

conventions as well as those that are within decent road tripping distance. Hopefully this 

will allow you to plan your 2008 convention schedule with style and perhaps even lead 

you to some fun and new conventions in your area. See page 7 for the map. 

LOCAL CONS: 

Anime Los Angeles (Los Angeles) 

January 

Estimated Attendance: 3,000 estimate. 

Wizard World LA (Los Angeles) 

March 


Fanime (San Jose) 

June 


Anime-Expo (Los Angeles) 

June 

Estimated Attendance: 44,000 estimate 

San Diego Comic Con (San Diego) 

July 


Ani-Jam (Fresno) 

August 


Mikomicon (Northridge) 

September 


Ani-magic (Lancaster) 

October 


Pacific Media Expo (Los Angeles) 

November 


ROAD TRIP CONS: 

Sac-Anime (Sacramento) 

January 


Anizona (Phoenix, Arizona) 

April 

Estimated Attendance: 2,000 estimate 

Anime Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada) 

October 




PACIFIC MEDIA EXPO 

Music, Parties, and Movies 

On November 9 th , 2007 the 4th annual Pacific Media Expo, or PMX as it’s more 

commonly called, came to sunny Los Angeles, California. Well, Inglewood right by the 

LAX airport to be specific. The convention, run by the Pacific Media Association, is 

most well known for its collection of J-pop/J-rock bands. However, this is not all the con 

has to offer, having expanded into a full 2 and a half day schedule of amazing 

programming this year. Guests of the convention included James Kyson Lee (Heroes), 

Hiroyuki Tanaka (Claymore, Chobits, Ninja Scroll), Takahiro Umehara (Tenjo Tenge, 

Claymore), Spike Spencer (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Excel Saga), and Aimee Major 

Seinberger (Futurama, Japan Ai). PMX also had an impressive list of musical guests this 

year; providing live shows for low ticket costs were Head Phones President, The Candy 

Spooky Theater, The Slants, LiN CLOVER, and Thee Out Mods. This con is hardly just 

about its celebrities in attendance, but about your average attendees as well. Though the 

attractions of music and movies ranging from Korean drama to Japanese action bring you 

in, it’s the atmosphere that keeps you there. PMX has some of the most amazing parties 

and open atmosphere that allows you to mingle with just about everyone around the clock. 

Well the arcade at this convention may not rival that of many others, the dealers hall is 

definitely a well rounded selection of sellers that makes this con worth its cost of entry. 

During our time there, Animation Liberation was lucky enough to interview the 

band LiN CLOVER. 


LiN CLOVER 

Los Angeles – Walking to the 17 th floor suite of the LAX Hilton I was eager to 

meet with the members of LiN CLOVER for a very personal interview. This band, which 

has been recently coming up in the 

American J-Pop scene, has already 

performed several US concerts 

this year and has a fan base filling 

the hotel rooms below for their 

PMX debut. As I entered the room, 

the group sat quietly on a couch at 

its center. These modestly dressed 

rock stars seemed anything but, 

keeping to themselves in a very 

Japanese fashion. It was their 

actual fashion of dress that 

surprised me the most as they had 

done away with the cliché and 

flashy styles of most modern day 

J-pop bands to seek out something far closer to an American Indie style of clothing. This 

style is somewhat reflected in the lyrical content of their music as well, making them 

stand out that much more from your average Japanese music export. 

To add a little background on this group, LiN CLOVER is made up of three great 

musicians. Yuri, a petite girl who seems to be the heart of the band is also its voice, both 

metaphorically and literally as she provides her unexpected yet soothing vocals. Ren, LiN 

CLOVER’s bassist, is the wild card of the group, one that Yuri claims constantly makes 

her nervous. Finally, there is Nao, the band’s guitarist and male heart throb. The band 

formed in 2002, after Ren and Nao left GacktJOB (the touring backup band for infamous 

J-rocker, Gackt) and met up with the then solo artist, Yuri. Since then the band has 

release three major albums, Strain Gage, Nut, and their self-titled debut. Making their 

USA debut at the April, 2007 

Sakura-Con, the band has 

since played multiple US 

anime conventions and been 

nominated as ‘Best Japanese 

Rock Band’ in the manga 

m a g a z i n e S h o j o B e a t . 

After introductions 

were all through it was time to 

get down to business, finding 

out what makes LiN CLOVER, 

well…LiN CLOVER. So the 

first question had to be, what 

is LiN CLOVER, where did 


BAND PROFILE 

Name: 

LiN CLOVER 

Members: 

Yuri (Vocals), Nao (Guitarist), 

Ren (Bassist) 

Formed: 

2002 

Albums: 

LiN CLOVER (2004) 

Strain Gage (2005) 

Nut (2006) 

Selected Tracks: 

‘Higanbana ha mama’ 

‘Rinkaiten’ 

‘Risou Deshiberu’ 

the name come from? It turns out there is quite 

the story behind that alone. Well the obvious 

answer is that the Japanese kanji creating the 

first half of the bands name roughly translates to 

“getting things together in life” well the addition 

of clover was simply for its happiness. However, 

the band has delved far greater into their name 

and truly developed it into a child, with an 

interesting back-story to go along with it. As 

Yuri described it, LiN CLOVER is the name of a 

young, virtual Japanese girl who grew up during 

a horrible war. This has made the band’s titular 

avatar very emotionally strong, much like the 

b a n d m e m b e r s w h o s t a y t o g e t h e r t o 

metaphorically care for the child as a family. 

When asked where each band member 

started their musical training and interest, the 

answers spread across the board. Yuri began her 

musical studies at the young age of five, a 

member of a local chorus. Nao found his 

musical beginning in his brother, taking up 

guitar much like his older sibling at the age of 

twelve. Ren, far more direct, simply chose to 

share that he began learning bass at the age of 

eighteen. Though one can not simply define a 

band by their musical ability, we had to further 

find origins in their influences. Well Yuri takes 

many of her ideas from the fictional settings she imagines, Ren sees his music as more of 

an escape from reality and his influence follows him. Nao, once again sharing a quite 

intriguing answer with an unforeseen calm, told us that his influence comes from time 

spent in the bath tub. There, Nao submerges himself beneath the water, where the silence 

reminds him of being in his mother’s womb. 

“Between playing live and recording in the studio, which do you prefer?” is a 

question ever so commonly asked in all the cliché interviews ever done with bands, but as 

always it can never be avoided. In the case of Yuri, she has enjoyed all her lessons 

learned in the studio but cannot find any comparison to the power of a live crowd, much 

like her band mate Ren. Ren says that he loves the crowd and his direct contact with them, 

wishing to stand out during the performances with antics that often leave Yuri quite 

worried. Nao, on the other hand, is a self-proclaimed geek who likes to record and mix 

his music in the studio. This is highly understandable for the handsome looking celebrity 

as he has dealt with his fair share of stalkers. Nao feels as if stardom has removed any 

sense of privacy from his life, even returning home to letters sharing his daily events 

from an eerie alternate perspective. Nao adds that he loves his fans, however sometimes 

fears that they have made him their “thing” and forget that he is indeed a person. 

Of course stalkers aren’t the only flaws seen in being a public persona in the 

music industry. As Ren put, you have to deal with the constant frustration that if you 


don’t sell, you quite literally end up poor. Yuri’s worries are far less depressing however, 

seeing that the only problem is being under the public’s watchful eye. “When everyone is 

watching you, you can’t do bad things” she stated. However, Yuri also wanted to make 

note on the differences she and 

her band mates see between their 

fan base in America and those in 

Japan. She comments that it’s 

most notable in the live concerts 

they perform, finding the 

Japanese live shows quite quiet 

up until the show is over. Yuri 

shares with us that this is quite 

troubling because, as an artist, 

you don’t know how well you’re 

doing or being received until it 

all over. This is in stark contrast 

to the loud and uproarious 

applause and cheering or violent booing and disapproval shown by American concert 

goers. As Yuri put it, the American fans are there emotionally and show their enjoyment. 

Nao simplified the concept with his quite unique take on things, calling the Japanese 

audience quite cute well the Americans are very sexy. One can only presume he wasn’t 

simply talking about their appearance and striving for something far more metaphorical. 

On the topic of their American concerts, I asked them how they enjoyed 

performing at Sakura-Con and their San Francisco show that followed. Yuri exclaimed 

that she was quite excited by the whole thing and that Sakura-Con was so amazing that it 

became the reason they returned to the US. Ren ended by adding how he was so happy to 

see “the Bridge” from one of his more enjoyed television series. After a bit of confusion 

amongst the group he began humming the opening bars to the infamous American 

television series that started off the Olsen twin’s careers. It turns out Ren is a bit of a fan 

of “Full House” and did not realize that the Golden Gate Bridge was not merely a prop in 

the show’s opening sequence. Smiles and laughter were abound at this as we all rose 

from our seats to shake hands and part our ways. The members of LiN Clover were off to 

prepare for the evening show, a concert that rocked in all sorts of forms. This band has 

risen in popularity over the years and it is quite deserved in every way from their unique 

music to generally humble and happy attitudes. The band truly seems to care about their 

fans and the fans continue to reciprocate that love, hopefully for some time to come. 

� Mathias Lewis 

Special thanks to David Cirone of JapanFiles.com. All photos © provided by JapanFiles. 

For more information on the band LiN CLOVER, try checking out the following sites. 

www.linclover-web.net/ 

www.myspace.com/linclover 

www.yesjapan.com/linclover/ 

www.japanfiles.com/ 


MIKOMICON: 

Year Two 

Guest Con Report by Walter Bartel 

I recently went to MikomiCon: a college convention headed by the very talented 

Nick Kurachi along with the Cal State University of Northridge anime club and "Write 4 

Hope”. I was very excited to go this year because last year had a lot of kind memories for 

me. I gathered my things, made arrangements with some friends of mine, and off we went 

to Northridge! (As a side note: if you're ever driving on the I-405, just south of long 

beach, there is a terrific Indian food restaurant called “Taste of India” along the way. "It 

serves as a good halfway mark" between San Diego and Los Angeles, as Austin said on 

the way up.)As soon as we got to the con, we knew it was going to be a slow first day. 

The scheduling was not kind to those [still in school], so it was basically just the college 

students and adults in cosplay, which was a laugh. Both a Bridget (Guilty Gear) cross 

player and Kakashi (Naruto) stood around, waiting for some friends to meander in. The 

mood of the day was stoic. Not much happened, save some bands playing (which I didn’t 

b e l i e v e t o b e a l l t h a t g r e a t ) a n d g a m e r o o m s h e n a n i g a n s . . . 

However, the next day would prove to be quite interesting...Saturday was by far, 

and quite obviously, the best day to be there. This is the day 

that everyone, hardcore and new fans alike, came to enjoy 

the con. All day the atmosphere was friendly and 

entertaining, as the entire convention was filled with a 

general 'good vibe'. From the moment the convention halls 

opened it was enjoyable. Panels abound upon the school's 

large common area. Panels from Aikido, which showed 

some con-goers some self defense moves (for, say, Anime 

Expo '08?) to Gundam Model kits, where you could make 

your own and learn tricks of the trade, to the Masquerade, 

which I thought was really good, but more on that later. 

The thing I find great about smaller conventions is 

the fact that it’s much less intimidating when you want to 

make some new friends. The fact of the matter is that larger 

conventions are hard to network in. Where would you feel 

more comfortable to open up socially--in a huge convention 

hall where everyone is moving, or in an open common area, 

where you can converse freely? I’d choose the latter myself. 


As the day progressed, the staff of MikomiCon really pulled through: they were 

knowledgeable about the panels and locations of events, they were friendly (unlike the 

ALA security) and they had some fun stuff planned. Case in point: the watermelon eating 

contest. It was HOT, people. Southern California is HOT. And then suddenly, there was a 

contest of eating cool, refreshing watermelon. Good choice, MikomiCon, Good choice. In 

addition, they had bands playing music all day, which I thought was a nice thing to add. 

The closeness of all the members of the con, plus an atmosphere of a welcoming degree 

just sat well with me. As for Sunday…I don’t like the last day of cons, no matter where I 

go. Not too many people showed up and those who did were winding down; the dealers 

left early. 

What could 

they have done better? 

That’s an easy thing to 

say, but you have to 

think of the resources 

they have. First off, 

they'd need to rope off 

some areas in order to 

shirk the area of 

convention, as said by 

a friend of mine. The 

attendance was a bit 

small for such a big 

area. It just didn’t have 

enough attendees to 

have it spread out like 

that. They also should 

have had more shade. 

The whole time, there were cosplayers in heavy suits and costumes like a few 

Akatsuki (Naruto) cosplayers and a few members from Organization XIII (Kingdom 

Hearts) who stood around in heavy black coats all day. 


This isn’t to say that they didn’t do anything right, though. Most of the stuff they 

did right. For instance, the dealer’s hall was fantastic. Everything a small convention 

should have was there, and it was air conditioned. Even Chaz (CHAZ IT UP!) from 

Anime LA was there, handing out free water and showing off his fliers. 

Another thing was how they organized the masquerade and rum party. For those 

that don’t know what that is, the rum party is were a crew of cosplayers all come together 

and throw a pirate themed little party, handing out free drinks. No, there’s no actual rum, 

because it’s all ages. But you can hang with friends and play cards, liar’s dice, walk-theplank 

and on occasion other games as well. 

Back to the original point, the Rum party was in a room directly connected to the 

masquerade. Last year, the room was open and a part of the masquerade. This year, they 

put up a removable wall, and that drastically improved the mood of it. With the room a 

bit more crammed, the masquerade seemed packed, when there couldn’t have been more 

then 250 in the room. And when it was done, the rum party started, and the staff moved 

the chairs for the dance, so everything was moving on the same focal point. You had 

everything you wanted to do that night in the same area. How fantastic is that? 

Overall, I give MikomiCon a ‘B-‘, which is better then some cons. It’s good. But 

there’s definitely room for improvement. � Edited by Austin Wright 

For more information on the MikomiCon anime convention visit their official site, listed 

below. 

http://www.mikomicon.com/ 

To contact or learn more about Walter Bartel, you can visit his myspace (listed below) or 

reach him at wes.bartel@gmail.com. 

www.myspace.com/dreamer_of_twilight 

A half-page of No-Ads provided by the Animation Liberation 

Hope you enjoyed the white, now back to the magazine! 


FULL METAL ALLEGORY 

‘Scar as an Allegory to Osama bin Laden’ 

"Viewed from any angle Osama bin Laden is a great man, one who smashed the 

expected unfolding of universal post-Cold War peace." A military genius and religious 

icon Osama bin Laden has fought the world's only superpower to the point of stalemate, 

if not strategic defeat for three decades. Indeed his triumphs have made him iconic to the 

point where Osama has eclipsed Mohammad as the single most popular name for new 

born babies in the Muslim world. "His name is legend from Houston to Zanzibar to 

Jakarta," writes 22-year CIA veteran Michael Scheuer and his face and sayings are 

emblazoned on T-shirts, CDs, audio and videotapes, posters, photographs, cigarette 

lighters and stationary across the earth." He fits the image of the traditional Islamic hero 

to a T, having abandoned a worldly life of riches to fight on the frontlines of the Afghani 

Soviet War (where he fought and defeated the world's second/former superpower) where 

he was renown for his courage and his willingness to risk his life in battle. Likewise he 

has memorized 

the Koran and 

the Hadiths to 

the point where 

he can recite 

each word for 

w o r d . 

And his 

arguments for 

defensive jihad 

a r e t e r r i b l y 

s o u n d . T o 

realize why this 

is one needs to 

p a y c a r e f u l 

a t t e n t i o n t o 

what bin Laden 

i s a c t u a l l y 

saying. There is 

a c o m m o n 

misconception 

in the United States that Osama simply hates our way of life, and wishes to destroy the 

United States. Indeed, he may be irritated by what he sees as our sinful behavior, but he 

does not invoke this as a cause for war. Indeed Osama's call is for a defensive jihad, not 

offensive. And Osama does not order it, indeed no Muslim individual can call for an 

offensive jihad-only a Caliphate State, the last of which ended in 1924 under Turkish 

reform. This is the where the crucial misunderstanding on the nature of Osama bin Laden 

and Al Qaeda lies, the fact is Osama bin Laden does not (and cannot) order a jihad, all he 


has to do is prove that a non-Muslim government is attacking Muslim lands. If Osama bin 

Laden can show how a non-Muslim government is attacking Muslim lands it is the 

a u t o m atic d u t y o f e v e r y M u s l i m t o co m e t o t h e d e f en s e o f Is l a m . 

That is why the war in Iraq has been called a "Christmas present for bin Laden." It 

shows without a doubt that the West will invade and occupy Muslim lands. That coupled 

with the United States absolute military support for Israel, the establishment of 

permanent US bases on Muslim soil, the funding and arming of apostate governments in 

the Muslim world, and has even tried to block and control one of the five pillars of Islam 

(Zakah), that of charity/tithing by demanding that "Muslim regimes limit, track and 

control donations made by Muslims to charity organizations." This, along with countless 

other intrusions into the Muslim world (see end of this article for details) serves to 

legitimize defensive jihad for the 1.2 billion members of the Muslim world. As Osama 

bin Laden puts it: "Why are we waging Jihad against you? The answer to that question is 

very simple. Because you attack us and continue to attack us." 

That is not to say Osama bin Laden is a good man. His views are both colored and 

biased by his religious beliefs, and his actions, while perhaps legitimate with respect to 

Shari’a law, can be considered mass murder by more secular standards. 

Likewise, while his criticisms may at times be legitimate, they may not, according 

to some scholars, be real. Osama bin Laden criticizes the US on a number of issues, 

ranging from complaints about how our carbon emissions contribute to Global Warming, 

to accusations that Bush stole the 2000 elections. 

While many of these criticisms may be true, and hence legitimate, it would be 

difficult to argue that Osama is really concerned with these issues. Indeed Osama does 

not even believe in environmentalism or democracy, so one could say that many of his 

expressed criticisms are used for the purposes of political gain. 

Thus Osama bin Laden represents a very grey, powerful, and world changing 

figure from a religious, desert based society who's name is famous and infamous 

throughout the entire world. 

The character Scar, in the anime series Full Metal Alchemist likewise represents a 

morally ambiguous, tragic, religious figure from a desert-tribal culture. One who's 

country has likewise been assaulted by a Western nation, which is more powerful 

economically, scientifically, and militarily, and does so well, in the face of nearly 

insurmountable odds. 

Japan, as one would expect, has thus expressed concern on the issue of the 

Afghanistan and Iraq War, and the War on Terror in general. Indeed Japan's former prime 

minister, the infamous "Ailing Abe" used the success of the Japanese SDF forces as a key 

point in his argument to dismantle the United States imposed "pacifist constitution". Thus 

while the general public in the United States may not realize it, the more political 

segment of Japan has indeed taken an interest in recent Jihad vs. McWorld events. 

And as can be expected from a culture relatively outside the conflict, their point 

of view is more objective. While initially Scar is portrayed as a monster, for anyone 

willing to use Alchemy or what he considers heretical science by killing State Alchemists 

and their creations. As Scar puts it "So that I could find the Alchemists who have fallen 

from your path and with their own demon arts, destroy them". 

At first glance Scar may come off as a murderous religious fanatic who is killing 

people out of a misguided, fundamentalist following of his religious beliefs. 


However throughout the series one finds that Scar's hatred of alchemy is 

determined by personal tragedy. Scar's entire family was murdered by State Alchemists 

who preemptively invaded his land, Ishval, and massacred his people. Indeed in the 

manga the war escalates into a full scale genocide reminiscent of the holocaust. 

To make the reference even more explicit one can note that many Ishvar buildings 

share a similar architecture to that of buildings in the Muslim world. Furthermore, one 

can note that while in the anime the apparent hatred of science (alchemy) and the 

fanatical religion may seem arbitrary and based on blind dogma, if one looks at history it 

is revealed that the disdain for alchemy is due to the fact that it lead to a major disaster in 

Ishvar and that attacks using alchemy have reduced the much prosperous land in the 

desert. Though I doubt they were conscious of this fact, the parallel to the events of the 

Middle are uncanny in the sense that the once vibrant, and forest covered Fertile Crescent 

was likewise reduced to mostly barren desert by the introduction of agriculture, and the 

consequential over farming and hence erosion that occurred as a consequence thereof. 

Hence in both cases the fundamentalism, and fanaticism expressed by these cultures 

occurs not as a result of anything intrinsically wrong with the people themselves, so 

much as it occurs as a backlash following geographic catastrophe. 

Where reality and allegory differ most significantly from the Japanese narrative, 

and actual occurrences, with respect to Full Metal Alchemist, lies in the attitudes 

expressed by Edward and Alphonse Elric and that of the United States public. While 

Edward and Alphonse end up eventually coming to understand Scar's point of view, and 

the fact that they share a common enemy in the malicious Führer who controls the State 

of Armenia, the US public reaction to Osama has been far less open and tolerant. Within 

the United States Osama bin Laden is regarded as an absolutely evil man, who betrays his 

religion and murders millions seemingly for no reason whatsoever. And in the meanwhile, 

the crimes of our own government and corporations, which have taken the lives of 

hundreds of thousands of Muslims directly, and as much as a million indirectly in the 

country of Iraq, are either ignored, or treated as the justified collateral of necessary war. 

Most people in the US don't even know why they hate Osama, or what he says, they 

simply believe as they are told to do so by authority figures, popular culture and 

corporate media. � Jacob Guevara 

For more information on Fullmetal Alchemist, Scar, and Osama bin Laden, see the links 

provided. 

www.fullmetalalchemist.com/ 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_laden 


COLLECTOR’S CORNER: 

ICE Kunion’s Entire Catalogue! 

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND: 

(October 2005 - January 2007) 

ICE Kunion, being active for only fifteen months, introduced sixteen separate 

series. Their products all fell under Korean drama, but even within that field, there was 

diversity: "Cynical Orange" and "Forest of Gray City" played out in such a realistic 

manner that they very well could have been autobiographical, while on the other hand 

"11th Cat" and "Moon Boy" were purely fantasy. 

There could have been a wave. When ICE Kunion introduced itself to the 

American market, it was at a beautiful time. Tokyo Pop had already released some 

Manhwa over the past years ("Ragnarok" and "Devil Diary" as examples) which sparked 

the interest of what else Korea had to offer. In January 2006, Manhwa publisher 

NETCOMICS began releasing their products around major bookstores too; there were so 

many titles to choose from, if those two companies alone could have retained their 

foothold, there very well could have been a cultural movement and in the end Manhwa 

would get a separate section on the bookshelves. But the end of 2006 also marked the 

end of ICE Kunion's interaction with the market; the wave had died down. 

With all great and revolutionary ideas comes absorption. In July of 2007 it was 

announced that Ice Kunion was going to be completely absorbed by Yen Press, (a new 

manga impress, owned by "Hatchette Book Group USA".) the titles will continue to be 

released under this new imprint starting in Spring 2008. While these events are good 

mark for those who want to see ICE Kunion's titles stay afloat in America, there is the 

underlying tragedy that our manga markets were not sustainable for South Korea's 

investments. 

ICE Kunion was one of the best publishers to ever grace our bookstores. All of 

their releases were 1st editions; their catalogue is worth collecting in its entirety. If you 

ever seen an ICE Kunion release in a back bin of a store or at a vendor's booth, don't miss 

an opportunity to collect something so great. 

Additional information from WIKIPEDIA: ICE Kunion's partners include 

Sigongsa and Seoul Cultural Publishers, two of the four largest media empires in Korea. 

ICEkunion's former editorial director Ju-Youn Lee (now Yen Press' senior editor) is 

quoted with saying "I asked them, would they like to join Yen Press with all the resources 

of Hachette behind the titles. They decided it would be a better chance to take risks with 

Hachette." Lee said that while the ICE Kunion co-venture was a good project, "We didn’t 

have any staff working in U.S., and we had our limits doing work from Korea." 

� Austin Wright 


* 11th Cat (열한번째 고양이) 

By Kim Mi-Kyung (4 books) 

* Angel Diary (천행기 / 天行記) 

Written by Yoon-hee Lee, drawn by Kara (5 books) 

* The Antique Gift Shop (분녀네 선물가게, 이은) 

By Lee Eun (4 books) 

*Bring It On! (건강합니다!) 

By Baek Hye-Kyung (4 books) 

* Chocolat (쇼콜라, 신지상-지오) 

By Shin Ji-Sang and Geo (4 books) 

* Comic (만화) 

By Si Hyun Ha (2 books) 

* Cynical Orange (시니컬 오렌지) 

By Yun JiUn (3 books) 

* Freak - Legend of the Nonblonds 

Written by Dong-Eun Yi, drawn by Chung Yu (2 books) 

* Goong (궁) 

By SoHee Park (1 book) 

* Heavenly Executioner Chiwoo (치우천하) 

Written by Ha-Na Lee, drawn by Kang-Ho Park (3 books) 

* Hissing (히싱) 

By Eun-Young Kang (3 books) 

* Legend (리젠드) 

Written by Soo Jung Woo, drawn by Kara (1 book) 

* Moon Boy (月요일 소년) 

By Lee Young-you (3 books) 

* One Thousand and One Nights (천일야화, 전진석/한승희) 

Written by Jin-Seok Jeon drawn by Seung-He Han (3 books) 

* Real Lies (새빨간 거짓말, 이시영) 

By Si-Young Lee (1 book) 

* Forest of Gray City (잿빛 도시숲을 달리다, 엄정현) 

By Jung-Hyun Uhm (1 book) 


SAC-ANIME: 

‘Overcoming the Once-a-Year Blues’ 

There are huge barriers that come with conventions that happen only once a year: 

the struggles to keep the friendships alive of those we only meet there, the dead periods 

of the message boards, and the inability to keep such a group constantly active in the real 

world. 

As for the faces we only see at the conventions, if lucky, we’ll run into them and 

remember their name and we’ll chat for bit: no strong friendships form but maybe contact 

info will be exchanged. That’s how it goes. (Check out Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon 

series if you’re interesting in seeing how not to communicate with loved ones met at 

cons!) 

The difficulty of maintaining those friendships isn’t inherently due the community, 

nor is it anything the convention is responsible for: it is our allegiance to the lunar 

calendar. A full year is too long of time for friendships to stay without physical 

interaction. Almost all conventions abide by this annual policy, so we are left to simply 

accept it and just deal with the issue some other way. 

There is one city though, where they have overcome this problem and have 

created a great anime community: Sacramento. Because it is a good eighty miles away 

from other major cities [and with exception of those who can drive out to the bay area] 

their anime community is relatively stationed within their city. Their community is very 

strong due to the fact that they’re not abiding by the once-a-year schedule: they have six a 

year! 

Sac-anime held two cons each year in both 2006 and 2007 (1,500 people showed 

up for both their July 2006 and January 2007 cons, while 2,000 people showed up for 

their July 2007 con). Sac-anime is the sister convention to the “Sacramento Anime, Toy, 

and Comic Show”, which is also known as Sac-Con. Sac-con had four one-day events 

placed in-between the Sac-anime events, giving six separate [events] to attend to each 

year. 

Their Message board, serving as the official meeting place for both conventions, 

is active year round. They even have a shoutbox (a chat-like feature that allows people to 

quickly leave messages on the website, generally without any form of user registration.) 

that also remains active. The Message Boards of annual conventions tend to have long 

dead periods of inactivity (seeing how most action takes place just before and after the 

convention): they’re not constantly active nor would a shoutbox be able to survive too 

well there. Sacramento’s anime scene has definitely succeeded and for that they can 

thank the clever approaches taken by their conventions. 


Through e-mail Bsaphire was kind enough to explain the role Anime Clubs have in 

Sacramento: 

Different Anime clubs were active in both the forums 

and with the con. Now that the con has grown and 

become more structured many of the staff are gaining 

seasoning and came on as staff from being volunteers. 

HS Anime clubs normally come in groups of 10, not 20. 

College Anime clubs come as individuals and we don't 

have records on them, though I have met a few of them. 

The anime and gaming/computer clubs in both HS & 

College are likely to be more active in supporting the 

con than average attendees. Many staff at cons are 

former club people in either HS or college. 

She was also helpful in breaking down the age demographics of the convention: 

0-10 age group = 1% (mostly babies and young people 

who's parents are working as dealers, industry or 

staff) 

11-15 age group = 25% (the majority of these are CCG & 

CGR people) 

16- 21 age group =45% (staff makes up 5% and the 

majority of attendees are the cosplayers, music lovers 

& gamers) 

22- 30 age group = 21% (staff makes up 5% and the 

majority of attendees are gamers, cosplayers and music 

lovers) 

31+ age group = 8% (mostly dealers, industry and long 

term staff) 

Though there are many different factors that determine the strength of a city’s anime 

community, Sacramento stands out as an example where their “one con every two 

months” is a major role in their success. � Austin Wright 

For more information on Sac-anime check out their official website, linked below. 

http://www.sacanime.com/ 


Boycott: CMX! 

CMX is a company that conducts business dishonestly. Through dumbing down 

or significantly altering its manga dialogue, CMX is not only censoring its releases, but 

reducing its quality of manga as well. Likewise CMX 

represents an attempt to monopolize and Americanize the 

manga industry as a whole, as one of the three big oligopolies 

which are generally harming the manga/anime culture. 

Being owned by DC comics, and DC comics being 

owned by AOL/Time Warner, the profit CMX makes thus 

gets factored into AOL/Time Warner. Every time you buy a 

CMX manga such as "Tenjho Tenge" or "Megatokyo", you 

may initially believe that you are supporting a manga 

industry, when in reality, you are supporting both a 

mainstream US comic industry and a leading international 

corporation. AOL-Time Warner is the largest media 

conglomerate in the world. This may not be harmful in itself 

but the practice of disguising the ownership of an industry is 

fraudulent and hence dishonest. 

I love manga, but I don't like the idea of my money 

going to a company which I think is harming our national 

economy. It's similar to how Marlboro owns Kraft Macaroni 

and cheese (Kraft is the largest food and beverage company 

headquartered in North America)-I don't have anything 

against Mac and cheese, but at the same time I have moral 

qualms over supporting the tobacco industry. That is why the 

issue of corporate honesty and transparency is so important-- 

FIGHT: CMX MANGA 

http://digitalsin.bebopboard.net/tenten/ 

This is a website with formal ways to 

boycott CMX. There is also a pageby-page 

criticism of Tenjho Tenge’s 

censorship and edits. 

The following pictures are taken from 

their website. These are just two of a 

hundred. 

All Tenjho Tenge images © CMX, DC Comics, Aol/Time Warner, 

and Oh! Great. 

it allows the consumer to make a rational and 

responsible decision over their purchases with 

the full information available. By masking 

who really owns a company, we have 

effectively have lost our ability to make an 

informed purchase. This constitutes a form of 

consumer fraud. 

Aside from economic trickery, another 

criticism of CMX lies in the quality of the 

products they release. CMX has made 

significant edits to many of its manga titles, 

such as "Tenjho Tenge", so as to remove 

content that the corporate affiliates believed 

would reduce the scope of their potential 

demographics. This was done even though many fans vocalized expressed concerns about 

how the removed content was essential to major plot points of the series: this constitutes 

a form of censorship, as well as again consumer fraud-seeing as no mention of the edits 


are noted in CMX's products. Such changes reduce the artistic integrity of the piece, and 

one can argue that ultimately the owner of any artistic creation should be the artists 

themselves: this is a classic case of a company putting its profits before the quality and 

integrity of the art they are distributing. [This is similar to how Wal-Mart removes or 

replaces words in its CDs for the purposes of making it's products more family friendly-some 

can argue that it is within the rights of a company to do so, but the fact remains that 

t h e c o n s u m e r i s n o t w a r n e d o f s u c h c h a n g e s 

and thus ends up buying a different product than expected]. 

In any 

event, it can also 

be noted that 

such censorship 

dumbs down the 

manga being 

produced. Such 

changes are 

obviously meant 

to make the 

manga more 

marketable to 

children/adolesce 

nts--thus the 

company is in 

essence selling 

the public a 

different product 

than the one they 

paid for. If 

someone pays for 

an adult manga, 

they probably 

want an adult 

manga; not 

something 

orientated 

towards thirteen 

year olds. That 

would be like a 

store selling a 

copy of Mortal 

Kombat, and then 

secretly editing 

out the gore, 

fatalities and 

blood without 

letting the public 

AOL/Time Warner Details 

AOL/Time Warner's position in the world raises concerns about the 

companies control over the internet, media and entertainment 

industry in general. Indeed it should be noted that after the overturning 

of the 1996 Telecommunications Act (which forced 

companies to share their fiber-optics lines with competitors) in 

2003, America went from being the world's top leader in internet 

development, to being the country with "the slowest, most 

expensive, and least reliable" internet in the developed world. It 

should be noted that AOL-Time Warner had incentive to prevent 

internet development due to the fact that increased distribution of 

cheap, high-speed internet would "would multiply outside video and 

movie offerings and endanger the cable companies' profitability". 

And their position as the largest internet service provider in the 

world allows AOL/Time Warner to directly block any would-be 

competitor's ISP. So not only does AOL-Time Warner have the 

incentive to slow internet development, they have the means to do 

so. This has lead to a situation in which the US has dropped from 

4th place (under the Telecommunications Act) to 13th place in 

terms of broadband internet usage. This is even though 75% of 

home in the US already have sufficient cable networks which could, 

with some upgrading, provide basic or high speed internet. 

The estimated cost of our failure to keep pace with the rest 

of the world in developing internet technology is expected to cost 

the US economy an estimated 500 billion dollars in profit, and 1.2 

million new jobs. Indeed according to Charles Ferguson, an 

economist of the Brookings Institute, "perhaps as much as $1 

trillion might be lost over the next decade due to present constraints 

on broadband development. These losses, moreover, are only the 

economic costs of the United States' indirection. They do not take 

into account the work that could have been done through 

telecommuting, the medical care or interactive long-distance 

education that might have been provided in remote areas, and 

unexploited entertainment possibilities." And this occurs at a time 

when US economic competitiveness and the United States edge with 

respect to research and development are both coming into question. 

And that is the real crux of CMX comics being a subsidiary of an 

umbrella corporation like AOL-Time Warner. 


know. It is changing the product without consumer consent, and it is insulting on two 

levels--one being underestimating the public's level of maturation and another being their 

intelligence in that the company is assuming the public will not find out that they've just 

been deceived. Personally, when I buy a product, I expect to get what I paid for, not what 

the company feels like giving me so that they can make more money by selling to a wider 

audience. 

A dishonest company, 

whose profits secretly go to a 

media conglomerate that is 

h a r m i n g t h e A m e r i c a n 

e c o n o m y , s e c r e t l y 

edits/censors its manga to the 

point of fraud. The growth of 

CMX could thus only harm 

the manga industry as a 

whole--by dumbing down 

manga in general (so as to 

market it to 13 year olds) and 

by creating a precedent for 

other companies to alter 

manga without informing 

their customers. Thus anyone 

who cares about manga 

should not buy from CMX, seeing as any financial support given to the company will 

allow it to now only grow, but to purchase the rights to other manga as well--thereby 

blocking other, more legitimate companies from distributing manga. Instead you should 

purchase manga from more independent publishers who's rendering of manga is truer to 

the originals produced in Japan: 

GoComi! and Broccoli Books are two examples of ethical Manga publishers. 

Money spent on them would be invested back into the company and allow them to 

continue their publications, more than CMX would invest their profits back into their 

own company. There is little to no censorship from GoComi! or Broccoli. 

Buying from CMX is socially irresponsible. Help protect the quality of manga 

and punish dishonest business practices by boycotting CMX. � Jacob Guevara 

On the following page is a list of CMX manga titles released as of December 

2007. As always, we at Animation Liberation recommend you should avoid purchasing 

the American release of these titles under the CMX brand. These titles may be perfectly 

fine and worth reading and picking up, but just not through CMX. If you can find them in 

Japanese or when another more ethical company releases the series if the licenses 

change, check them out! 


CURRENT LIST OF CMX MANGA: 

* Apothecarius Argentum (Yakushi Argent) 

* Crayon Shin-chan 

* Canon 

* Chikyu Misaki 

* Cipher 

* Densha Otoko – (Demo, Ore Tabidatsu yo) 

* The Devil Does Exist (Akuma de Sōrō) 

* Emma 

* The Empty Empire (Kara no Teikoku) 

* From Eroica with Love (Eroica yori Ai wo Komete) 

* Gals! 

* Go Go Heaven!! 

* Gon 

* I Hate You More Than Anyone (Sekai de Ichiban Daikirai) 

* Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne 

* Key to the Kingdom (Ohoku no Kagi) 

* Kikaider Code 02 

* King of Cards (Card no Ō-sama) 

* Land of the Blindfolded (Mekakushi no Kuni) 

* Love for Venus (Love wa Kataomoi) 

* Madara (full title: Mōryō Senki Madara) 

* Moon Child (Tsuki no Ko) 

* Megatokyo (from Volume 4) 

* Monster Collection (full title: Monster Collection - Majūtsukai no Shōjo) 

* Musashi Number Nine (Kyūbanme no Musashi) 

* Omukae desu 

* Orfina 

* Oyayubi-hime Infinity 

* Palette of 12 Secret Colors 

* Penguin Revolution (Penguin Kakumei) 

* Pieces of a Spiral (Rasen no Kakera) 

* The Recipe for Gertrude (Gertrude no Recipe) 

* Seimaden 

* Swan 

* Sword of the Dark Ones (also Ragnarok) 

* Tears of a Lamb (Hitsuji no Namida) 

* Tenjho Tenge 

* TenRyu: The Dragon Cycle 

* Testarotho 

* Time Guardian 

* Tower of the Future (Mirai no Utena) 

* Two Flowers of the Dragon (Ryū no Hana Wazurai) 

* Variante 

* Vs. (Versus) 

* Young Magician (Shōnen Mahōshi) 


Chibi-Tokyo Presents: 

A Senshi-con Interview 

Chibi-Tokyo is an audio podcast group that presents a regular show involving 

anime reviews and highly hilarious commentary. The group consists of three people: 

Edgar, Dan, and Scott. These very clever and witty guys have interviewing skills far 

exceeding that of our own over here at Animation Liberation, so we gave them their own 

slot here. This is an interview that took place at Anime Expo 2007 with Rina, the founder 

of Senshi-con and her co-director Ian Keen. 

Scott: This is Scott Carrasco. We're here from Chibi-Tokyo. Here are here with 

the president of Senshi-con. Why don't you go ahead by telling us a little about 

yourself? 

Rina: Well, I'm the founder of Senshi-con. We started three years ago: March 2005. 

Senshi-con was the first con to exist in Anchorage Alaska. It started as a little anime 

convention in my high school. 

Being from Los Angeles, we don't really know what the anime movement is like in 

Anchorage. What is it like? 

It is mostly like the scenes like any state. We have cosplay. We don't live under a rock. 

Everybody cosplays. Everyone watches pretty much the same anime that people are 

watching down here. The difference is that when you have a convention, the scene is so 

much smaller. 


Can you tell us the history of Senshi con? 

We were always a very small con. I started Senshi-con when I was seventeen years old. 

So, I had never even been to an anime 

convention. This was before I went to Sakuracon 

or any other con. I didn't really know 

what an anime convention was. I had looked 

them up online. And "oh cool, people dress 

up in costumes, and they go buy stuff from 

their vendors!" And that sounded like a lot of 

fun. And everyone was always saying: “Why 

don't we have one in Alaska?" And I was the 

president of my High School Anime club. So 

I would always try to think of fun projects for 

us to do. Because I didn't like us to just be a 

club that just sits around and watching anime. 

And no one could agree on anything. So we 

could just never agree on anything. Because 

no one liked subbed anime except for me and 

one sub purist. *laughs* 

One day someone said “We'll why don't we 

have a mini-convention?” And I thought that 

it sounded like a fun idea. I didn’t really 

know what went into a convention. We could 

have to in the cafeteria and we can put up 

decorations and stuff like that. *pause* It was 

improvisation. So, we went and asked out 

School principal "hey can we have a 

convention in our school cafeteria?" and he said "yes just observe the fire codes and don’t 

get too crazy". So when we started, everything had to come from nothing. I mean we 

knew that we had to have their weapons peace bonded and that they go up on stage and 

show their costumes and do a skit. 

We had two vendors because we just had two anime stores around Anchorage. We had 

tables for free because we were just kids starting a convention. It was pretty fun even 

though we only had about three hundred people come out. But that’s because we only had 

three months to plan it all. 

Can you tell us about the Projects that you did during your Anime Con and how 

many cons you’ve had total? 

We've had three anime conventions so far. I’ve resigned as the director because I’m 

moving, and also for other reasons. The kind of projects we’ve done have been based on 

our anime club. After we graduated from high school, we moved onto the college anime 

club. We started doing anime showings, and we did a dance. Just stuff to either raise 

money or just get more the anime scene involved. For Halloween and Christmas we did 


cosplay parties and we’d have miniature cosplay contests. [We would even] give away 

little manga books and lame prizes from our houses that we didn’t want anymore. 

Would you say that your con contributed to the popularity of anime in your area? 

Or was anime already a popular hobby there? 

Anime was already popular in our area. It wasn't like there was an anime scene, I would 

say. It was more that individual people watched “Adult Swim” and they wanted to dress 

up as their favorite character and they wanted to wear their Naruto headbands. There 

wasn’t an anime club in our college until I started one, I believe. 

Then when we started bringing people together, the anime scene started to grow. And 

more people had a reason to play. There was a reason to cosplay, they didn't have to 

travel out of state anymore. 

Being in Alaska, we realize that it is cold. How big does the igloo have to be in order 

for you to hold your con? 

Well we don’t have igloos, I can tell everyone that right away. The only issue with the 

cold was getting people out of bed. Our con was only one day. And it was a noon until 

nine con. Then people froze from walking to their car to the convention center. You 

know, People froze it gets hot in the convention center with all the bodies and the Otaku 

Funk. It wasn't at the convention center actually. It was moved to the student union of 

our university. So it was very far from the convention. But we had two floors. 

You might be familiar with Aurora-con. Could you talk about them? 

We started a year and six months before Aurora-con began. They wanted to go off and do 

their own thing. The two cons were not related at all. I'd say we were more fan-orientated. 

They were aiming for more of the Sakura-con and Anime Expo, whereas we were one of 

the cons where we were run by fans. 

Is your con mainly filled with Pen-pen, Chilly Willy, and Chiyo-chan played as a 

penguin cosplays? 

No, we had none of that. Mainly Naruto cosplay. 

Earlier we talked about Aurora-con, which is an industry driven and sponsored con. 

What are the major advantages and differences between the two? 

The main advantage to any con which is run more in a business sense is that they’re 

going to have more things. There will be more vendors and more merchandise because 

the vendors will be interested. They'll say "Hey, these people are serious. They know 

what they're doing. There is money in it for us." Most major companies don't seem to 

want to go to fan-run conventions. At least we’ve experienced that. Because I think they 

thought “this is just a bunch of kids” 

Another advantage for a business run convention is that there will be more people and 


there will be more cosplay. They have more money to advertise, and bring the crowds 

from farther away. 

The only disadvantage [of running a convention in a business sense] that I can think of is 

that it is so much about rules and policies. It's not about having fun. There is staff 

everywhere saying “You cannot go here. You cannot go there. You have to line up for 

this and this and this”. There is so much fine print at every northwest con that I've been to, 

and I'm sure it's the same all over America. 

Whereas at Senshi-con we were not even a non-profit organization, we were a studentrun 

club that went through our university. We did not have to deal with any of the 

business aspect of things. I mean we had vendor forms; we had waivers, and peace 

bonding and all that kind of stuff. We were basically just a school festival. We didn't 

have to have the whole minors with the guardians or we didn't have hentai... 

Actually, I suppose another advantage to one of the major conventions is that they can 

have events that appeal to a wider age range, whereas at our con we were restricted by 

being in school. There we were complaints that we couldn’t have hentai, yaoi, and yuri. 

Then the thing is that we’d have to have minor policies. And trying to deal with the 

school and explain what those things are. So we decided instead "Okay let's have a PG- 

13 con." At least then we wouldn’t have parents complaining. 

Would you say that the cold weather prevents cosplaying? And did you send your 

grandfather away from his village on his 50th birthday because he could no longer 

farm penguin meat? 

Ignoring the last part of that question...I don't find that it affects cosplaying all that much. 

I notice here at Anime Expo we have people hanging out outside in cosplay whereas 

Senshi-con was much smaller and self-contained and it was all in the building. There 

was enough room for everyone to spread out, move around and sit down. It didn't get so 

hot inside obviously. 

People cosplayed and they just brought their coat to wear over their costume. And they 


simply had to deal with the inconvenience of carrying a coat around with them the whole 

convention. 

Personally, I cosplayed for Halloween when I was freezing. I even cosplayed for the 

Christmas party. I wore my Haruhi Suzumiya costume to class for no reason. And 

everyone was like "how can you wear that? It is freezing outside." And I said "I felt like 

being Haruhi today!" 

Being up between Russia and Canada, how hard is it to find Anime merchandise? 

I don't find it really hard to do so. But then again, I'm not really knowledgeable on this 

because for most of my stuff I just it buy online. As for the vendors from Anchorage, 

they sell their own figurines, manga, DVD, posters and stuff, they even have Ramune! 

Could you tell us about your vendors, and how you went about inviting them to 

your con? 

We didn't charge space for the vendors at first, because we were just starting out. It 

wasn't until 2007 that we first charged as fee for table space, we had proven ourselves 

that we were more than just a high school con. Our room was not actually a room, it was 

a hall of vendors. They got combined with the Artist's alley because of us being such a 

tiny convention. In the end, the artists got lots of commissions and the vendors got 

business too. Being so small, there was a positive aspect that the vendors weren't 

competing with twenty other booths selling the exact same product. 

…As far as how we asked the vendors to be at our con, it was them who found us. they 

saw our website because we were listed on animecons.com, Newtype, and cosplay.com. 

We would submit ourselves to convention resources. The vendors would email us and 

ask for a Vendor application. We'd email the application. They send the check. And then 

the vendors would just email up…we do it like that. 

Having been to other cons, Have you noticed price differences from say a vendor in 

Alaska as compared to a vendor from the Southwest? 

I haven't noticed a difference really. In Alaska we don't have sales tax and here in the 

dealer’s rooms of Southern California, it seems like the sales tax were already added into 

the items. They extra price for shipping to Alaska seems to even out with the fact that 

there is sales tax placed on there. An item for twenty dollars here would simply be 

twenty dollars in Alaska too. 

Where you see Senshi-con in five years? 

Well, since I will not be in charge of Senshi-con. I'd like you had the mic over to Ian 

Keen, he is the co-director of Senshi-con. He goes by FullMetalMario in the cosplay 

scene. 

Okay, Ian, where you see Senshi-con in five years? 


Ian Keen: Personally, I cannot tell right now. The con means a lot to me though. 

Before I got active in Senshi-con, I used to be your typical kind of nerd. I used to just 

stay home and play games all day; I didn't have too many friends you know? I mean I 

was happy. But I always kinda felt that I was missing out on something. And then I met 

up with Senshi-con, it was pretty fun. And here I am now--I have a lot more friends, and I 

am way more outgoing. I got to come up to out of state cons. So it is a pretty big deal for 

me. 

Senshi-con has helped me out a lot and I'd like to try to do as much as I can for it. As for 

the future, I cannot say. I'd like to see it continue going strong. I guess that it is mainly up 

to the rest of the staff. I am simply just one person. If the other people aren't going to do 

too much then I'll have to drop the project myself. I'd hate to see it end like that. But I 

have to continue on with my own life. 

Is there anything else you could like to add? 

If you would like to start a convention, expect it to be a lot of work and almost no credit. 

It is definitely worth the stress when you're able to sit back and see what you've done. 

You have to be willing to manage your staff. You have to be able find staff members 

who will work hard. When you have a staff member who is doing their job, but they 

have such a bad attitude that it is affecting the con, you may have to say "okay we have to 

give your position on to someone else." 

Another hard thing is that you're dealing with volunteers. You cannot simply fire people. 

You might have to keep less productive people around just to keep the positions filled, 

while you yourself have to go do their work. It will be very stressful, so make sure you're 

doing good in school and that you'll have lots of free time. If you make your own 

costumes, expect that to be put on hold for a while. 

Lastly can you give your cutest anime impression? 

Rina: (In a quite amazingly upbeat anime tone) Well, I noticed that a lot of time in 

anime it's like totally over exaggerated and they do these crazy little laughs like 

hehehehehe...I'm kinda tired right now. But they always like to call the guys pervert. So 

you know they'll just be like so I was walking down the street and this total pervert 

Takeyuki decided to look up my skirt. So I was like 'excuse me, you are such a pervert' 

so then I kicked him into the street. I got out my gun, and my magical transformation 

powers. And that’s my story but aside from that, I'm just a normal high school student 

hehehehehe. 

For more information on Senshi-con, please visit http://www.senshicon.org/ 

For more information on the presenters, Chibi-Tokyo, check out their website and 

podcast at http://chibitokyo.libsyn.com/ 

To Contact Rina-chan you can email her at trueinnersakura@gmail.com or visit her 

myspace and personal website at 

www.suzumiya-haruhi.net 

www.myspace.com/innersakura 


REFLECTION: 

LEGEND OF GALACTIC HEROES 

Legend of Galactic Heroes (銀河英雄伝説 Ginga Eiyu Densetsu) is a hard 

science fiction, socio-political, space opera. Beginning as a novel written by 

Yoshiki Tanaka, they won the "Seiun Award" (the equivalent of Japan's Nebula 

award) for best novel in 1988. 

The series is viewed through the eyes of two military geniuses and follows 

the evolution of two societies: the Galactic Empire and Free Planets 

Alliance. Popular both in Japan and China, the series aired for four seasons. 

Throughout the series there is no explicit right or wrong-only different sides in a 

war; a common theme in LOGH can be summarized in the quote: "There are few 

wars between good and evil; most 

are between one good and another 

good." 

Likewise, the story seems to 

abandon the idea of free will, as it is 

shown quite clearly that every 

character’s actions are determined 

by material circumstances and 

history. There are secular, 

deterministic, and relativist tones 

throughout the series; there is no 

room for God in this universe. 

Throughout LOGH the 

mortality of man is emphasized by 

numerous deaths, ranging from the 

mass slaughter of civilians by 

military looters, to the assassination 

of main characters by religious 

fanatics. By the series end, about 

half the main characters die 

surprisingly quickly and 

undramatically. 

The two main characters in 

the series are Yang Wenli and 

Reinhard von Lohengramm. Wenli, 

of the democratic Free Planets 

Alliance-is a striving scholar of 

history, born of a failed small 

business owner, he is forced into the military to pay off his college loans, yet he 

strongly believes in democracy, noting that any system built in dictatorship will be 


only as strong as its leadership. Reinhard begins as a noble in poverty, which 

makes it so that his father is forced to sell his sister as a concubine to the 

Emperor, an event that scars Reinhard for life. Being of the Empire, Reinhard 

believes the system of democracy is overly idealistic, and that humanity needs to 

be united by a single, powerful ruler. As mentioned earlier neither of these two 

figures are presented as being absolutely good or evil; they merely have different 

philosophies concerning politics due to their own unique histories in their 

respective societies. 

There are heavily strategic battles throughout the series, based on cold 

calculation they contain virtually no heroics. This is demonstrated immediately in 

the first episode, when Reinhard is surrounded by three separate enemy fleets, 

outnumbered two-to-one. In this situation, Reinhard wins an initial victory by 

quickly moving his fleet ahead to meet the closest of the three groups as soon as 

possible. The reasoning is straight-forward: even if the enemy fleet as a whole 

outnumbers him, since it is divided into three separate groups, his fleet overall 

will be able to outnumber the enemy in any one particular place. As Reinhard 

puts it--"It comes down to numbers." That is simply one of the many examples of 

Napoleonic style warfare presented throughout the series. 

EXCEPTIONS TO THE NAPOLEANIC THEMES: 

There are a few times, to be accurate, when individual actions 

matter. When Yang is asked to seize the nearly impenetrable Iserlohn Fortress 

he succeeds by using Rosen Ritter (Knights of the Rose) shock troops to take 

hostages. One can also argue that Yang and Reinhard's actions may constitute 

exceptions to the series historical materialism in themselves. However these 

exceptions only prove the rule, as it is heavily implied that Yang's and 

Reinhard's place in history is determined by the growing escalation, and hence 

desperation, of the rival factions to defeat the other militarily by utilizing the best 

possible strategists. Likewise, Yang's meeting of the elite shock troops and his 

orders to attack Iserlohn fortress are the natural, and inevitable outcome of his 

being perceived as a threat to the civilian leadership, and his meeting with the 

Rosen Ritter occur as a result of their defecting from the Empire due to their 

individualist tendencies, and their willingness to make a scene in public (as the 

last attracts Yang's attention). 

The importance of history permeates the series: there are multiple 

episodes solely devoted to explaining the history of mankind up to the Astarte 

Encounter (the opening battle sequence). Even in the character's personal lives 

history is paramount, the viewers come to understand why Reinhard is motivated 

to unite the galaxy by viewing his childhood experiences as a poor noble who 

seeks power to save his sister from a life of bondage. Yang Wenli's political 

viewpoints likewise become understood from his history as a free citizen in a 

democracy, one who has heavily studied history and has learned about past 

leaders who have brought their society to ruin. Two other examples involve 

Jessica Edwards who becomes the leader of a pacifist party after her husband 


dies pointlessly in a war under an incompetent commander, and Paul von 

Olberstein, who's genetic blindness causes him to hate the empire's current 

Goldenbaum dynasty for their eugenic practices. History likewise determines the 

fates of societies. The Free Planets Alliance eventually loses it's democratic 

tendencies over its war hawk policies, eventually degenerating into a quasifascist 

state, while the Empire is forced to reform by it's confrontation with the 

Free Planets Alliance due to the greater level of meritocracy present in the rival 

society. 

The parallel events in LOGH and our contemporary politics are perhaps 

the most interesting aspect of the series. On Wenli's side, the claimed 

democracy, there are hate groups represented by the PKC (Patriotic Knights 

Corps), fundamentalists (in the form of the Earth Cult), military quagmires much 

like Iraq, massive social debts, and instances of brutal tyranny directed against 

peaceful protesters. The empire where Reinhard lives has parallel events similar 

to what is going on now in Yang's society: the Empire has infighting, civil wars, 

coupes, successions, and even had past cases of genocide. It seems as though 

prolonged military struggle causes the Alliance to degenerate (as a democracy 

cannot survive in a state of constant war) whereas the Empire thrives (as military 

action weeds out weak leadership). 

It is thus shown clearly that neither system is in an absolute state of 

progress and regress. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and both 

either hold true or false for people depending on their material circumstances. 

Wenli's democratic alliance is built on egalitarianism and idealism. 

However military action requires practicality and hierarchy. Thus it follows 

logically that as the Alliance enters a period of prolonged conflict, the democratic 

structures of the Free Planets must give way out of necessity, to protect the 

nation's sovereignty. The attempt to protect the Free Planet's Alliance by military 

might becomes the very instrument which causes its eventual progression to a 

state no different from the Empire's. The irony occuring as a result of the Free 

Planets militarization ranges from the mask-wearing PKC hate group which 

assaults dissenters in the name of preserving freedom, to a faceless crowd in the 

Free Planets Assembly hall singing about freedom and individuality in perfect, 

collective unison. The hypocrisy displayed is blatant, and mirrors modern day 

societies that claim to be free and democratic (like the United States with its 

religious right, Homeland Security and Pledge of Allegiance). Doubtfully 

unintentional, the colors of the Free Planets Alliance are red, white and blue. 

In the Empire which is built on hierarchical values, conflict has the exact 

opposite effect. War between the two societies serves to justify imperialist 

policies; causing civilians to obey orders for sake of victory as opposed to 

thinking for themselves. The efficiency demanded in warfare demands that 

people abandon their individual identities and subordinate themselves to 

collective will for sake of effective social action. 

The primary characters likewise come to display this as they begin 

to perceive, study and influence historical trends. During what Wenli perceives 

as a democratic period of the Empire's history, he requests the alliance make 

peace with the Empire in an attempt to further democratize both nations as 


Reinhard ascends, noting that Reinhard's merit based/reformist leadership 

signals a democratic shift in the Empire's politics. Reinhard likewise attempts to 

influence history, but in a different direction (for military gain as opposed to 

peaceful co-existence), an example being when he predicts that the Empire will 

experience a period of civil war due to his ascension threatening the position of 

the Goldenbaum nobles. In order to avoid having the Alliance take advantage of 

the period of temporary weakness in the Empire, Reinhard uses a former 

Alliance general who currently resides in the Empire's prison system. Reinhard 

gives a disgraced, high ranking Alliance POW a plan to instigate a coup de tat in 

the Alliance, and then initiates a massive prisoner of war exchange. As the 

former POW's enter their respective societies, Reinhard thus secures two goalsfirst 

he increases his support in the empire by freeing tens of thousands of 

imperial soldiers (who side with Reinhard against the nobles and increase his 

popularity with the citizenry), and secondly, he plants seeds which create a rift 

between the already antagonistic civilian-military leadership in the Alliance. 

Two other social elements explored in Legend of Galactic Heroes are the 

roles of capitalism and religion. Capitalism is represented in the Empire's semiindependent 

planet of Phezzan (the equivalent of a city-state in LOGH). The 

state of Phezzan serves as technically part of the Empire, but in reality functions 

as an independent state. Throughout the series Phezzan sells information to both 

the Empire and the Alliance, but serves ultimately to spread the Empire's 

influence by continuously feeding the Alliance's debt. The debt allows the 

Alliance to increasingly militarize its society, and thus undermine its own 

democratic institutions. Religion, in the form of the Terran/Earth Cult (a fanatical 

organization which believes the Earth is the spiritual center of the Galaxy) serves 

as a device by which the Empire is ultimately undermined during a time of 

relative peace. Religion serves as an outlet for the discontents of the Empire, as 

it promises spiritual rewards for those who cannot attain higher status in the 

imperial system. Faced with zealous mobs, Reinhard's imperialist tactics; 

depending on the use of force, are ultimately impotent. Religious fanatics are not 

afraid to die, so even as Reinhard sends his soldiers to kill endless waves of 

devout believers, the reactionary beliefs permeate his society. Indeed, the more 

fanatics Reinhard kills, the more fanatics he creates, as the dead are perceived 

as martyrs. Ultimately then, as capitalism serves to undermine democracy, 

religion serves to undermine dictatorship. Again the point is illustrated that both 

systems have their respective strengths and weaknesses. � Jacob Guevara 


Pages from the Past: 

Marionette Generation 

In every issue of Animation Liberation we try and bring to your attention manga 

that you may have missed out on. These books, whether given little advertising, small 

circulation, or generally having been overlooked all stand out as hidden gems in the 

Japanese comic world. Therefore we do our best equivalent of civic duty in constantly 

trying to make you aware of these often unbelievable and always amazing titles in a small 

section we call Pages from the Past. 

In this edition of Pages from the Past our title is the stunning Marionette 

Generation. This heavily under credited manga series saw its original release in 1989 

under the talented pen of Haruhiko Mikimoto. Some of you mecha fans may already 

recall the name because of Haruhiko-sama’s 

contributions in the way of character designs to 

series like Macross and Mobile Suit Gundam, 

amongst many others. Don’t worry though, you 

don’t have to be a mech fan to enjoy this heart 

warming and often hilarious story that comes 

completely out of left field from Haruhiko’s 

previous work. 

Marionette Generation tells the tale of a 

starving young manga-ka and illustrator by the 

name of Izumi Morino. Morino’s life is already 

Series Rundown 

Series: 

Marionette Generation 

Manga-Ka: 

Haruhiko Mikimoto 

Genre: 

Shojo 

Total Number of Tankoubon: 

5 

Original Japanese Publication: 

1989-1998 

American Release: 

2001 

American Release Company: 

Viz 

complicated enough, just barely making bills well 

dealing with his obsessive and crazy personal 

assistant that also happens to be his junior high 

school aged stepsister, Kinoko. However, things get 

more interesting when his high school crush, Kozue, 

comes to stay with him by surprise. Oh, and was it 

mentioned that Morino lives with a doll? Not just 

any doll mind you, but a sentient doll that talks and 

performs magic! Morino wakes up one morning 

finding this doll, later given the name Lunch, in bed 

with him. Lunch seems to have no idea as to who 

she is or even what she is. 

As the series progresses, all forms of hijinks 

and drama ensue with Kinoko trying to pursue a 

romance with Morino, Morino looking for any form 

of relationship with Kozue, and Lunch just trying to 

discover some concept of personhood. Things take 

a turn towards the bizarre, as well as hilarious, as Lunch discovers others like her 

including a Santa doll that helps her find her true nature and magical powers. One cannot 


help but love this series for its mix of subtle and slapstick humour thrown on top of an 

incredible romantic drama of love triangles and youthful angst. 

This manga series is honestly one of the 

better dramas to come out of Japan and one must 

truly question why it’s not better known. 

Originally seeing its American release in the 

pages of Animerica Extra volume 3.03, it ran all 

the way until the publications cancellation. Viz, 

the company behind Animerica then released the 

series in their normal tankoubon format we in the 

States are so familiar with. The series ran a grand 

total of five volumes that came out between 2001 

and 2004. Each release received the Viz Editor’s 

Choice insignia, defining it as a manga that 

“defined the cutting-edge of creativity and 

artistry well setting a standard of excellence”. So 

the question is why haven’t you all read this title? 

The likely answer is that this shojo release came 

a few years before the shojo readers truly entered 

the scene. Up until the series finale saw its 

tankoubon release in the US, most American 

manga readers preferred tales of super powered 

fighters and action packed adventures. Well the 

readers were there, they just didn’t show up in the market until the series ended. Now the 

manga industry booms in the States like no other form of written word and such a release 

would fill the hearts of romantic and giddy anime fans across the country. Hopefully now 

you will take the time to track down this lost piece of perfection in manga form and enjoy 

every last page of it. � Mathias Lewis 

For more information on Marionette Generation check out the Anime News Network or 

order the title at your favourite comic or book store. 


GLOSSARY 

Capitalism - Coined by Karl Marx, capitalism is a system where market forces 

supersede social decisions. Under capitalism a wealthy few own and control the 

means of production, by which they control both the economy and politics. 

Copyleft - a play on the word copyright and is the practice of using copyright law 

to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for 

others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions. 

An author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme, give every person who 

receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work 

as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same 

copyleft licensing scheme. A widely used and originating copyleft license is the 

GNU General Public License. Similar licenses are available through Creative 

Commons - called Share-alike. 

Market Socialism - A temporary state of socialism where market forces are used 

for the greater good of society. Market forces operate differently under socialism 

then under capitalism in that, under socialism society is seen as the ultimate 

decider/benefactor, whereas under capitalism market forces are presented as 

ends in themselves. 

Oligopoly - A state where a few firms (companies) own/control a specific sector 

of the market. Capitalism is by definition an oligopoly. As capitalism evolves, its 

companies become increasingly centralized making oligopoly more apparent. 

See: Wal-Mart/Microsoft. 

-Sama - An honorable Japanese title given at the end of a persons name to show 

respect and reverence towards them. 

Socialism - A system where society rules. Under socialism economic policy is 

determined democratically, as opposed to capitalism where market forces 

automatically allocate resources without human decision. 

Tankoubon - (単行本) is a Japanese term normally reserved for books that are 

complete in themselves and not part of a series. However, the manga industry 

uses the term to describe the format in which their comics. The thick volumes we 

see most commonly in American releases of manga, holding several or more 

chapters of a specific series, are referred to as Tankoubon. 


Pictures: Friends We Met Along the Way

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