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ANIME FANDOM IN BRITAIN

Anime fandom came into being as a distinct entity in the United KIngdom at the 1990 British National Science Fiction Convention (known as Eastercon because it is held over the Easter holiday weekend.) As there is no formal or generally agreed history of the fandom, a group of fans at Fuyucon 2007 agreed to create this page as a nexus for shared memory and information. Those making corrections, comments and additions are particularly asked to quote sources and dates to enable cross-checking and confirmation. Accurate dates need to be attached to events and publications in the article, and further events and publications that may have been omitted need to be added.

For purposes of clarity this short account of the early days of fandom has been split into several eras. However this s one person's view of the timeline and a more coherent way of organising the information may emerge as the page evolves.

PROTO-FANDOM

In the 1980s, anime was almost unknown as a separate entertainment medium in the UK. Some had been screened on British TV, for example The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and the heavily edited version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman known as Battle of the Planets. As the UK home video market developed other titles appeared on videotape as part of various childrens' cartoon collections, but these continued for the most part to be heavily edited. My-TV Ltd. released the Harmony Gold version of Windaria known as "Once Upon a Time", and the Jim Terry edit of Crusher Joe, called simply "Crushers". Kids' Cartoon Collection, an exclusive label created for high street pharmacy chain Boots, released the Harmony Gold version of the complex made-for-video Birth as World of the Talisman, alongside the Translux edit of Speed Racer the Secret Car and Harmony Gold's Codename: Robotech. The most notorious edited release of this period was "Warriors of the Wind", Hayao Miyazaki's ecological anti-war classic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind reduced to an action-adventure film by having all the "boring" (i.e. ecological and anti-war) bits taken out of it.

Material about anime in English was limited to a few entries in books about the wider cartoon medium, and small-circulation fanzines created in America. European anime fandom began to grow in France and Spain in the 1980s, and commercial magazines and merchandise became available to Britons holidaying in Europe. Hong Kong magazines and newspapers were imported into Britain and available in Chinese stores in a few major cities.

Despite this lack of information and material, a few fans got together to share tapes and create zines. The earliest British anime-related zines were Robotech UK, a one-shot zine dedicated to the series, edited by Tony Luke with cover art by Steve Kyte, and MEKTEK, a gaming zine edited by Ashley Watkins and featuring anime content, again with art by Steve Kyte.

MEKTEK ran for at least 4 issues from 1988 to 1990, according to B.C. Misiasz' list of vintage UK RPG fanzines: http://www.gamehourz.com/Vintage-UK-RPG-Fanzines-Update-7th-2004-ftopict65658.html. Issue 3 (1989) listed 12 anime titles then available in Britain from four UK distributors: MY-TV, Kids' Cartoon Collection, Vestron Video International and Video Gems.

FIRST-GEN FANDOM

Anime fandom in Britain began at the 1990 Eastercon, EASTCON 90, where the first dedicated anime programme to be shown at a British convention presented 36 hours of anime. This was organised and curated by Helen McCarthy and Steve Kyte, with generous assistance from a number of American, Japanese and European fans who provided tapes and information. Anime shown included Akira, My Neighbour Totoro and Urotsukidoji.





Many of those who attended the screenings decided to keep in touch and soon after the event McCarthy and Kyte set up a fanzine, Anime UK Newsletter, to share and collate information and help fans get in touch with each other. Informal get-togethers also enabled fans to meet.

Anime UK Newsletter inspired one reader, Wil Overton, to show it to his boss, designer Peter Goll. Goll decided to invest in turning the newsletter into a magazine, using the existing tiny fanbase as a springboard.

SECOND-GEN FANDOM

Akira was released on video and in cinemas by Island World Communications, and was a huge success. The company set up a label, Manga Video, to exploit the new medium, and began to release anime starting with Fist of the North Star. Dark Horse Publications started a new magazine, Manga Mania, printing translated manga as well as features on anime. It was edited by Cefn Ridout and featuring work by members of the Anime UK team, including McCarthy, who acted as a consultant for its initial setup.

This commercial impetus brought in many new fans, predominantly teenage boys and students with no previous knowledge of anime or Japanese pop culture. More video labels were created to import and distribute Japanese titles in Britain. However there were also many new female fans, including artist Laura Watton who commented on her experiences in an interview with Terry Hooper at ComicBitsOnline:

http://www.comicbitsonline.com/

Fanzines and conventions became more widely available although UK anime fandom was still a very small niche market. A list of zines is maintained by Duncan Law-Green at http://www.ryouko.demon.co.uk/fanzines.htm and includes some notable titles from this period, including Manganese, Lucy's In Deep (Britain's first avowedly Christian fan manga,) cosmic bento and Anime XS.

CONVENTIONS AND FANZINES

Meanwhile dedicated anime conventions began to be held in Britain, starting with Anime Day, an event sponsored by the Sheffield Space Centre in 1992 (?). Anime UK held a one-day convention in London known as AUKcon.

Anime UK encouraged the publication of fanzines and reviewed those submitted. Fanzines tended to focus on three main areas: reviews and features; fan manga; and fan fiction. Among the most notable of the fiction zines was Tales from the Cajun Sushi Bar which ran for five (?) issues and included two contributors, James Swallow and Peter J. Evans, who would later publish fiction professionally.

THIRD-GEN FANDOM

As the Internet became more widespread and possibilities for downloading and file-sharing increased, a new generation of fans began to emerge. By the end of the 1990s a number of video labels had appeared and imploded, and the UK video rental market had collapsed.

THE NEW MILLENIUM

The millenium opened with a major distributor, Japanese company Pioneer, pulling out of the UK market. However the growth of the TV market, and especially the impact of Pokemon, was pulling in new young viewers, most of whom had no connection to organised fandom and were happy to get their anime through purely commercial channels. Matt Barber commented on the state of British anime fandom and the commercial market in 2001, in The state of anime in the UK on his long-running website http://www.honneamise.u-net.com/anime/Article1.html, which has been active since 1994.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Eastcon 90 page: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan//sf/cons/e90.htm

Neomag - What was the first anime in the UK?: http://www.neomag.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=95033&sid=835333fe82b05319b4d50c3204b96e34

Akiba Angels - The Great Bitish Anime Fan: http://www.akibaangels.com/articles/12_2005/uk_anime.php
(note: despite incorrectly linking three wholly unconnected magazines, this page provides useful information, links and images.)