• anime 28.02.2009 No Comments

    This has probably been written about before but have you tried Netflix for your anime fix? A while back I was thrilled that so much anime was coming out on DVD for sale. After stocking up on DVD’s I realized I couldn’t afford to keep buying them. Renting them seemed like a good idea but local rental stores’ selection was paltry at best. I turned to rental by mail and Netflix has proven to be a great solution. Read more…

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  • Japan 27.02.2009 No Comments
    click to enlarge

    click to enlarge

    The Kyoto Train Station is the central train and bus station for the city of Kyoto, Japan. Here it is on the map. I’ve been there many times and every time it impresses me. Kyoto Station (it’s official name to the Japanese) is an immense complex. You might be tempted to call it a building but after you’ve been there you’ll drop that word. The complex rises many stories into the air and many stories below ground. It houses a very large train station, a large bus station, a shopping center with many restaurants and countless other things that would take days to explore. The underground section extends over a larger area than the part above ground. As impressive as it is, Tokyo has even larger stations. Read more…

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  • fandom, Japan 25.02.2009 No Comments

    jtown-01

    In October of 2007 I visited Japan Town, San Francisco. I spent a lot of time here in my younger years. It’s a shame I’ve had to stay away for so long. The aromas of fresh Japanese food mix with the enticing scents of incense and other imported items to transport me back to my teenage years when I walked these halls and learned about Japanese pop culture for the first time. Read more…

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  • Mark Simmons has been well-known in anime fan circles for years as an expert on Gundam. He once maintained a large and in-depth Web site on the Gundam Universe but is now content to maintain Ultimate Mark. Along with Benjamin Wright he wrote Gundam: The Official Guide. He has assisted with the translation into English of several Gundam projects and created the mecha images that have been used for “franken gundams” by online Gundam fans.

    Gears Online was able to have an interview with this prominent U.S. anime fan. Read on to learn more about Mark Simmons. Read more…

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  • Japan 23.02.2009 No Comments
    click to enlarge

    click to enlarge

    When I planned my trip to Japan in 2006 I wanted to visit Kyoto and Tokyo. In the minds of the Japanese, Kyoto is Japan’s past and Tokyo is Japan’s present. Although it wasn’t my first time in Kyoto it was the first time I got to choose where we stopped. On the way to a temple I happened upon a large graveyard by a river. I wish I would have spent more time trying to learn the name of the place. The photos here don’t give a very good sense of how immense the place was. I’ve visited a number of graveyards in Japan during my past trips but I don’t remember seeing one this big.

    Read more…

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  • My brother (left) and I

    My brother (left) and I

    During my May 2006 trip to Japan I had the rare opportunity to visit the memorial of The Great One. Yes, Godzilla. The king of the monsters and an integral component of Japanese pop culture. Godzilla has been one of my heroes since childhood and, in my opinion, no trip to Japan is complete without paying respects at his statue.

    Read more…

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  • anime, mecha 15.02.2009 1 Comment

    Chouja Raideen

    I recently finished watching Chouja Raideen (often spelled “Reideen”). This show aired on television in 1996 and ran for 38 episodes. The name translates as Raideen the Superior. We can thank Central Anime for making a subtitled version available to us.

    Although it’s night-and-day different from the original Raideen show of 1975 it was enjoyable on its own merits. This isn’t a must-see show but I’d give it a thumbs up. 5 young men in Japan discover they’ve been chosen by the God Feathers to merge with the spirits of Raideen warriors of the past. This merging allows them to summon magical flying armor with wings and potent attacks. In their battle against the extra-dimensional Super Devils they discover another group of 5 Raideens and must learn to work together. The armor suits look cool and the action scenes kept me coming back for more.

    Read more…

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  • Rubel Colus has a report on new merchandise for Five Star Stories fans:

    More Best of FSS
    20th Feb
    price: 2500 yen
    size: A4
    pages: 196 Read more…

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  • Manga 10.02.2009 3 Comments

    “Anime fan” is the term that has stuck in the common parlance to describe most of us reading this but I think it’s a bit of a misnomer. Anyone who knows even a little about Japanese culture knows that it isn’t anime but manga where the real action is to be found. Manga is the Japanese word for what we call “comic books” but the term has come into use in English speaking countries for good reason; Japanese comic books are different from the western variety. New anime fans are usually surprised to learn how large a percentage of anime titles started out as manga.

    Those of us who have been sampling entertainment from Japan for a while know there is a much greater variety of stories and even genres in manga than can be found in anime or live-action shows. Many of the real gems never make it to the anime studios. It isn’t long before a good conversation at an anime convention turns from the screen to the printed page. Read more…

  • Welcome to GearsBlog, a new blog about mecha, anime, science-fiction and Japan. Because this blog is a part of Gears Online there will be coverage of mecha and mecha-related topics from anime, both past and present. Because mecha fans have other interests the posts here will also delve into science-fiction in general as well as the source of the mecha stories we all love: Japan. It is my hope that posts about Japanese culture and history will enhance your appreciation of the science-fiction manga and anime that come from the Land of the Rising Sun.

    At this point I am the only contributor to this blog so I’ll give a little background on myself. I live in the U.S. and have been a fan of both science-fiction and Japan as long as I can remember. My father started me out right by both watching original episodes of Battlestar Galactica with me on television and bringing Japanese business guests into our home. I became a serious anime fan around 1984 when I was in grade school and was the youngest member of an anime club that met to copy anime at a private home in Menlo Park, California. I started learning Japanese in high school. My first trip to Japan was in 1991. I’ve visited six times with one of those visits lasting for a year.

     

    Me in Tokyo in May 2006

    Me in Tokyo in May 2006

    I hope GearsBlog will keep you entertained and informed.  Feel free to post a comment if there’s anything you’d like to read more about in the future.