The Science Fiction Society is offering a full platter of these features this Saturday, November 11th when they will host their second AnimeFest in Perreault Lecture Hall. From comedy to sci-fi and fantasy, SFS will take viewers on a full tour of anime during the festival, which will begin at noon and last until the feature film, "Ninja Scroll" ends at around midnight.
Students Mike Caprio ('97) and Roy Martin (GS) are organizing the festival, which will be free to all. Of anime, Mike says, "It's starting to get more and more accepted in the U.S., but it's still underground." Mike and Roy are rushing to obtain all the features they want to show on Saturday, especially since they want to obtain as many dubbed versions of the films as they can. "People get mad (about dubbed anime), because you can lose something in the translation," according to Mike. Just the same, anime that is dubbed well is better than subtitled anime, and they're doing the best they can to obtain as much that is dubbed as is available.
Features on the schedule include episodes of "Macross Plus," the sequel to "Robotech," a few episodes of "All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl, Nuku Nuku." That last one sounds a little weird; it's the story of a female android with the brain of a cat, which gives it/her lightning-fast reflexes and a quick wit. Her job: to protect the children of her creator from the government. Try another: "Oh My Goddess!," a story about a boy who accidentally dials the goddess relief service, makes a wish and gets a goddess for a girlfriend (no, I'm not kidding). How about this one: "Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki!," three episodes of the series about a boy who inherits a magic sword that can control extra-terrestrial beings. Using it, he obtains not one, not two, but SIX alien girlfriends.
Yes, some of this stuff sounds really strange, but that's because most Americans haven't caught on. The Japanese culture is really big on spirits of animals and people, demons, and aliens, all of which show up in their animation. There are a lot of cultural barriers which prevent Americans from getting the drift sometimes. For instance, Japanese legend has it that, when a virgin male sees a naked woman, his nose will start to bleed. Since most of us don't know that, we just wouldn't understand when it happens in an animated feature from Japan.
All in all, there's a lot of variety in this year's festival, and all of it leads up to the final full-length feature: "Ninja Scroll," an "extremely violent," "very gory" anime about ninjas fighting evil demons and the like. So, if you are looking for something to do this weekend, stop into Perreault Hall on Saturday anytime between noon and midnight and check out AnimeFest '95!
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