page 9 of the SwanCon 17 Progress Report (unnumbered; dated July 1991) features details of the video stream. At the top, there is a logo containing some Japanese calligraphy and the word ‘ANIME!’; to the right of this are the words “Anime Matsuri” and “the Video Stream with a Japanese Flavour”. The article continues:
The Video Stream at SwanCon 17 will comprise three components:
- Japanese Animation on the Big Screen Video System
- General features on the Big Screen Video System
- Mini-festivals and marathons on the Hotel Video System
For the sake of simplicity, we’re calling the whole video stream “Anime Matsuri” (which simply means “Animation Festival”), even though there’s obviously a lot more to it than the title might lead you to believe. Below is a listing of some of the elements you’ll probably see in each of these components of the video stream.
Japanese Animation –
Anime Matsuri will feature the Best of AnimeCon.
Huh? AnimeCon is the first world convention of Japanese Animation, to be held in San Jose California in August this year. Up to half-a-dozen members of JAFWA, the Perth Animation Group, will be going to AnimeCon, and the committee of that convention have offered to assist them in any way possible to videotape the absolute cream of the three, simultaneous, 24-hour video-streams of Japanese Animation showing at the con. This material will be made available to SwanCon 17, and you can be assured that we’ll be able to show you the very finest in subtitled and dubbed “Japanimation” – the best in the world.
More often, peoples’ knowledge of Japanese Science Fiction comes through their comics, or Manga. Popular examples include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Appleseed, Lone Wolf & Cub, Gunhed and Akira. Many of these Manga exist as “Anime”, and will be shown as part of the Anime Matsuri (a highlight being, of course, Akira in English).
These films and Manga represent only a small part of the whole range of the Japanese Animation Movement, and a film like the stunning Tombstone for Fireflies begins to show the true versatility of the medium.
at the bottom of the page is a line drawing of an Anime style young person lying on their front, looking up at a seated cyborg from the Appleseed Anime.