GearsBlog

Well, Gundam fans, it’s out. The latest edition of the Mobile Suit Encyclopedia. This time it’s called Mobile Suite Illustrated 2009. This is at least the 6th edition. The earliest edition I have is the Mobile Suit Encyclopedia which appears to have been published in 1989 and claimed to have 370 mobile suits. After that came the Mobile Suit Encyclopedia Ver. 3.0 (1992) which claimed 559 mobile suits. 1998, 2003 and 2006 saw new editions. Read more…

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…

“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…