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Once upon a time, this would have been labeled as a “bonus” episode since we don’t even introduce ourselves or say the episode number, but since the last time we had him on was over a decade ago we decided to catch up with Jim Kaposztas, creator of the first AMV and certified “oldtaku” to talk about anime fandom, conventions, and creative fan endeavors in both the pre-Internet era as well as today.
- AnimeCon ’91 black and white flyer
- AnimeCon ’91 color flyer
- Cover to the BayCon ’86 program guide – for those so inclined, you can now find scans of this entire thing online
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (37:58 – 41:00)
The great day has arrived, as Angel Cop Remastered on Blu-Ray is out. Oh sure, we bought the original Blu-Ray but this is the true HD remaster in the original aspect ratio! Also coming at you is Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos in its entirety! We were only able to review the first 15 episodes back in 2007, so we’ve been waiting over 15 years to see the rest of this madness unfold. And while we can’t be certain, with it now streaming on Netflix and removed from HiDive/the Sentai Filmworks site, there’s a good chance that they no longer have the rights to Den-Noh Coil, so unless you think Netflix of all places will do a home video release, you will want to buy the Den-Noh Coil Complete Collection while the supplies of it still exist. We get the feeling that it might not be reprinted.
- Jim’s YouTube channel “Ultragoji” which contains many of Jim’s creations over the years, DMCA bots notwithstanding (someone else has the custom URL)
- Our 2008 interview with the Philadelphia Animation Society, which includes Jim and the late Bill Thomas (1949-2015)
- We talked to the Philadelphia Animation Society again in 2009
- Our interview with Rob Fenelon and Walter Amos in which Rob recalls some of these same stories from his perspective; part two of that interview is here
- From Dave Merrill’s Let’s Anime blog, a 1999 essay by Walter Amos regarding his entry into anime/Star Blazers fandom which in many ways mirrors what Jim experienced since they ran in the same circles (you can see Walter in some of the pictures used for the Richard Moriarty celebration video on Jim’s YouTube)
- Dave’s also posted some of the photos from Worldcon and Lunacon Jim refers to (Daryl thought they later ran in “Newtype” but “Animage” is the more likely culprit
- The Redline AMV which we believe is from a (former?) listener
- The Giant Robo AMV from the same creator
- The Evangelion AMV set to the Savatage song
- There are a few City Hunter x Cowboy Bebop AMVs, but this one is likely what Jim is referencing since it inserts the characters into Macross Plus
- Death Note with Avenue Q
- The Haruhi Suzumiya “I Ship It” AMV which we think resulted in some sort of fan scuffle between the AMV creator and the person who made the song, but we didn’t follow it
- Synced Together: AMVs and Their Editors is a feature-length documentary 5 years in the making which will be premiering at various anime conventions this year, beginning with Sakuracon in April; there’s probably actually going to be a segment on the “I Ship It” drama in here
I always love listening to how the anime world was before the Internet and big industry cons could take our money. It was a great experience, especially on the US or UK side (like the previous interview episode from last year). Back in Mexico, there were a lot of “Chinese cartoons” (like my grandpa used to call them) or Dragon Ball wannabes. Coming from Mexico, it was completely different growing up having Mazinger Z, Saint Seiya, Ranma 1/2, Heidi Girl of the Alps and what not in local TV and syndication. That was my childhood, and especially having them UNCENSORED gave me a different approach to the anime world when I came to the US 20 or some years ago and started doing conventions in 2011. I always like listening to the ways the conventions were like back in the prehistoric days of our grand dinosaur lords of the 80’s and 90’s. Thanks guys for another great episode. [If we’re the dinosaur lords being from the 80’s and 90’s, then what does that make Jim being from the 60s and 70s? Granted, this comment was posted within minutes of the episode going live such that one couldn’t listen to it by now even at 2x speed, but we know it’s great so we’ll take the compliment! –Daryl]
If the dinosaur lords are from the 80s, then I think Jim’s generation must be some kind of Cambrian era critter, like trilobites or anomalocaris.
I wish he went into how the HELL did he make cuts on interlaced content. [I presume content being interlaced was of no concern in an era of CRT-only displays, before computers could play video. –Daryl]
Essentially correct. I haven’t gotten through the whole episode yet, but I have gotten to the part where he talked about laying down control track. As long as the control track on the tape was clean and uninterrupted, editing the video track to cut between different clips wasn’t a big issue. (I did a little bit of video editing back in the day myself, and took a video editing seminar while in grad school for the student television channel, mainly so that I could get access to their editing bay using U-Matic and Digital8 video and Video Toaster to cut together the only 3 AMVs I ever made, back in the very early 90s.) Everything was analog — even running through a computer (such as the Amiga running video Toaster) only served to superimpose a computer-generated analog signal into the video input from the deck. (This is a similar principle to the Amiga and genlock device, which we and many other groups used to produce the early VHS tape based anime fansubs back in the day.)
Hi,
The edits were done with an edit capable VCR, using a “flying erase head”, which would lead to a phenomenon someone called “rainbowing” at the edit point. The Videos were edited between 2 machines, way before Computers became commonplace…
Jim
Regarding editing interlaced footage on CRT displays, and I promise this is the last time I bother you with this, what I fail to understand is dealing with the interlaced standard of “odd>even>odd>even>odd>even……..” If I cut the video improperly, and end up with 2 even or 2 odd fields right next to each other, how will THAT work??
Really great episode…..I wish a version of this had been a panel at SakuraCon 2022….I did enjoy the AMV content I made time for at SakuraCon, to be sure, but I was hoping for more historical & technical discussion like this with audio-visual examples. I’m very sad my favorite local con, Oni-Con (Galveston, TX) dropped their AMV Contest, which was sponsored and managed by a cable access show out of San Antonio, Texas. The AMV contest at Delta H Con (Houston, TX) is small but fun. I think the most fun I’ve ever had experiencing AMVs was Otakon 2021 last year….which led me to discover the anime series Lovely Complex, as one of the entrants used visuals from that show. The AMV Contest for Anime NYC 2021 was pretty good but there were some repeat entrants I remembered from Otakon 2021….not that I minded, necessarily…they were some of the best ones. I think I have great ideas for AMVs but ZERO skill at actually putting one together & editing it, LOL. Just glad that others still produce them and hope these remain a staple of anime conventions for years to come.