I have one final letter to print before closing the thread on animation and anime that has been the subject of this journal, last Friday excepted, since last month.

• From "Hkrok76": "The reason America seems to have the outlook on anime as having a lot of violence and big-chested girls wearing next to nothing is because that's what is marketed. The Cartoon Network shows Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing along with others that aren't as popular. I watch these and find myself feeling sick. Their voices can get so annoying. These have turned into cartoons due to the sound quality and whatever the American companies did to down tone the [content]. . . . A show called Card Captor Sakura, which I believe is coming to American television as Card Captor, is really fun to watch. It's shojo anime, which is for girls. Even though it's target are girls, I, a guy, still like it. When it comes to America it will probably be butchered to the point that only little girls age five and under can stand to watch it. The problem is the companies that try to bring anime to America. They do it very poorly. I figure I would just learn Japanese and import from Japan the films I would like to watch."

I just did a radio show. A radio station called me and asked if I would be a guest on their show because someone there saw the article on me that appeared on the front page of a local paper. I don't know how this happened. All I did was take The Dialectizer down, and I found myself in USA Today. I put it back up, and I'm there again.

I'm shy, but I thrive in the spotlight. I've had an entertainer's mentality since I first started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. But what happened here? I'm just a guy with a web site. I know it gets a decent amount of hits, but there's a difference between seeing a number and seeing what it indicates first hand. When did it become front page news locally and any news at all nationally?

I'm exaggerating a little for the sake of conveying my puzzlement over it all. RinkWorks has been in newspapers and on the radio before, in "best of the web" type features -- exciting every time -- but never with such a furor. It leaves me pleased but a little confused.

At any rate, if you haven't already been informed by my self-appointed internal PR person (thanks, Ellmyruh!), you can find some of the latest wave of articles here:

• USA Today article
• news.com article
• USA Today followup
• Nashua Telegraph front page article

[Note: On June 18th, another article appeared in the Boston Globe.]

The anime post in the previous journal entry (5/24) inspired a lot of response email from many of you. Here are two of them:

• From Jodie G.: "As an adult fan of anime (27), I must agree with you that the majority of American anime fans are in the under-18 age group, and I too feel that this is a shame. (I have been running an anime web page for the past 2 years, and the majority of people who who email me are in high school or younger.) My hopes for the future are that the young anime fans of today will grow up to be adult anime fans whose interest in anime will move beyond Pokemon and Sailor Moon. Another narrow-minded assumption that is often made, that you didn't mention, is that all anime is violent and has heavy sexual content. This is an assumption that I made myself, after watching anime late at night on a local TV station. But once I started exploring web pages about anime, I found lots of quality shows that had minimal violence and sexual content, such as Fushigi Yuugi, which was released in the U.S. by Pioneer last year. I was very happy to see this anime released in the U.S. because it goes against two stereotypes -- it's not for kids, and it's not extremely violent or sexual. Another hope I have for the future of anime in the U.S. is that people like you will continue to discuss it and bring about a better awareness. Thanks!"

• From Jeremy S.: "I have been an almost constant visitor to your site ever since I found a link to Adventure Games Live at www.amused.com in December of 1998. I just finished reading your commentary on the sorry state of anime in the United States. I totally agree with you that animation is an awesome medium for feature films. Much of this has to do with the fact that almost any story can be told, without any special effects necessary. The producers are not held back by the fact that certain stunts or sequences would be too expensive to create. Instead, the stunts and special effects are limited only by the artists' abilities. I have been a fan of the anime directed towards more mature audiences (and by mature, I mean films such as Crystal Triangle and the Lodoss War series, not some of the nearly pornographic material out there). Within the past few years, my friends and I have fallen into the habit of checking the Anime shelf of our local video store over the weekends. We have found several exceptional films (including the aforementioned titles), but, due to the limited selection that our video store carries, we may soon run out of new films to watch. As far as anime in theaters is concerned, there seems to be some hope. Urban Vision, a company which produces anime, recently finished work on the sequel to the 1985 release Vampire Hunter D. The company is currently working on creating a budget to release the new Vampire Hunter D in theaters. I am eagerly awaiting the results of this proposed venture, due to the fact that it may actually expose more Americans to Japanese animation."