Re: Intro
Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Fri, 17 Mar 2000 11:09:27 -0600 (EST)
On 16 Mar 2000, Sean Wyles wrote:
> I thought I would to. I admit it, I am a lurker. hehe
>
> I am 25 and live in Texas. I first discovered the greatness that is LOGH
> through some people I knew at Anime UTA (what is weird about this is I dont go
> to school there....at least I think its weird) and it truely is one of the
Since everyone else is doing these:
Name: Walter Amos
Age: 33
Education: BA/MA in physics
The thing that hooked me on anime in the first place was "Space
Battleship Yamato" in tis incarnation as "Star Blazers" in the US.
Always a fan of space opera and cool bad guys in capes, I found nothing
that grabbed me quite like it until a friend showed me the first LoGH
movie sometime around 1991. It only took the first 5 minutes of that
movie to convince me that this was something I needed to see more of.
My basic reactions:
"Hey! That scrolling text is in German! I can read that!"
"Hey! That music! They're using Mahler for background music!"
"Hey! You mean to tell me that cloud in the background is an entire
*spacefleet* ?!?!"
"Hey! This Empire is entirely composed of Germans, has ships and space
fortresses that have gilded Doric columns and silver Prussian Eagles in
their interior design, have the most splendid uniforms including capes
and epaulets, and their high admirals can wear mutton chop sideburns??"
Needless to say I devoted myself to finding everything I could about
this show that almost no one else had ever heard of. I managed to
procure some poor quality multi-generational fansubs of the first
several episodes from a friend in San Antonio. While the video quality
was poor, these included up to episode 4, which finally let me see the
full dress uniforms of the Imperial admiralty. After mopping the drool
off the floor I decided that somedy I simply had to have one of these.
(You have noticed by now that I'm a fan of pomp and circumstance?)
Discussing the show on the net and IRC, I got in touch with Bruce
Carlson, who graciously began supplying me with much better quality
fansubs. I was pleased when I was eventually able to repay his kindness
by sending him copies of the fansubs my friends and I did of Miyazaki's
"Future Boy Conan" as "The Conan Project".
I also wanted to quote the particular letter I did above because it
makes me happy to reflect that it was my copies of Bruce's fansubs that
I put in the UTA club library, and that these have helped interest a
new group of fans in the show is immensely gratifying. Especially in
light of the difficulty I experienced early on in trying to get some
episodes of LoGH shown at UTA some years back when I was there. It was
difficult to get past the heckles of "Boring Germans in Space!" about a
show I enjoyed so much. But I felt redeemed when I eventually managed
to complete our fansub of the 2nd movie ("Overture to a New War") after
someting like a year's hiatus after our initial start on it, and showed
it at the club. The obvious enjoyment and laughter at lines like
"Hmm, I've never seen a formation like this before..." made it
worthwhile. Most amazingly of all, many people actually applauded at
the end. That rarely happened in my experience for anything at UTA and
really made me feel good.
Several years ago, before any of the 2nd series had been fansubbed, I
did a panel at A-Kon on LoGH. Since I am one of those few people
insane enough to watch LoGH even unsubbed (I am, after all, from a
generation of fans who got into this before subs existed at all) I had
a copy of the episode where Julian reviews the history of the birth of
the Empire and the Alliance. I wanted to show that and discuss more
background of the show not immediately obvious. WHile I was a bit
disappointed that this panel had been scheduled early Sunday morning, I
was surprised at the number of people who showed up (over 15, I think,
for an early Sunday panel on a show that wasn't a big fan
flavor-of-the-month!) It has been a few years but I want to do such a
panel again at this coming A-Kon. I am hoping the activity of the UTA
in showing the series this semester will bring a new group of people
interested in such a discussion.
As was mentioned previously in a post about Sakura Con, I am trying to
figure out a way to get Takayuki Karahashi to come to A-Kon as well,
since he is the only person who can bring the LoGH pilot dub screened
at Anime Expo last summer. But with or without Taka I still want to do
a panel this year. Now if I can also only find my old copy of that
"Cho Kuseni Narisou" ("I'll Make a Habit of It") episode that is an
LoGH parody to show...
==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos(at)sedl.org
