Central Park Memorial panel

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DocWatson
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Central Park Memorial panel

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Hi! I'm the second panelist on the Central Park [Media] Memorial panel. Again I apologize for busting in. :oops:

I've had a bit more time to follow up on questions from the panel, and to track down the resources I mentioned during it.

The three types of yakuza are tekiya (wandering/pushcart merchants), bakuto (gamblers), and the post–World War II gurentai. The anime/manga series I was trying to think of was Black Lagoon, which features a story arc about tekiya, "Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise" (manga volumes 4–5; anime episodes 19–24 (the end of the second series)).

I think it was said that of the original Area 88 anime series, only the first part was released by CPM on DVD. However, all parts were (1, 2, 3).

The shopping resources I recommended are Alan D. Peters' AnmeMania (lists of virtually all anime and manga commercially available in North America in English through November 2006) and DVD Price Search (for comparing prices and availability of DVDs). For manga, try BookFinder.com (a price comparison metasearch engine; the reasons why you should use it) and Mile High Comics (one of the largest comic stores in the U.S.; search link for CPM Comics).

We also mentioned Justin Sevakis—see his Anime News Network columns Tales of the Industry and Answerman (search the Answerman archives for "Central Park" + sevakis).

Lastly, I recommend Fred Patten's timeline of early North American fandom, which includes a couple of mentions of CPM and its labels (see page 41).

Edit: For the Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer anecdote, see the "The Japanese Years" section of The Secret History of AnimEigo. I'll dig up the review of the (license rescued) Urotsukidoji Blu-ray later, as it is currently eluding me.
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DocWatson
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

Post by DocWatson »

I'm afraid I misremembered about the Urostsukidoji review—it was only a paragraph (SFW) here (paragraph five).
off_kilter
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

Post by off_kilter »

I'm not sure you're right about Area 88 having all three parts released by CPM on dvd. Back in the day I purchased the first dvd volume and waited nearly two years for the second dvd before I emailed CPM to find out what was going on. The basic response I got was something along the lines of:

"Dear customer, we do not have any plans now or in the future to continue releasing Area 88 on dvd. If you are interested the entire 3 episode series is still available on subtittled vhs from our online store. We at CPM thank you for your business."

The rightstuf links you posted are of the first dvd volume and the act II & III sub VHS tapes. Notice how on volume I had that big ANIME DVD border on it and the others don't? They put that big label on all their DVD's back in the day.

Truth is finding info on Area 88's releases can be confusing at best. If you look at the wikipedia article it claims part II isn't on the ADV releases, when in fact it is. All ADV did was condense the two OVAs into one film with the only thing cut was the title logo for part II.
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DocWatson
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

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off_kilter wrote:I'm not sure you're right about Area 88 having all three parts released by CPM on dvd.

<snip>

The rightstuf links you posted are of the first dvd volume and the act II & III sub VHS tapes. Notice how on volume I had that big ANIME DVD border on it and the others don't? They put that big label on all their DVD's back in the day.
My mistake. I found what I expected to find, without actually looking at it. I would have sworn I had all three DVDs from CPM, but I don't—only volumes I and III on laserdisc, as well as ADV's DVD release; both Animemania and Anime on DVD/Mania.com list only the first volume from CPM on DVD (Mania.com has it under Region 4 :-p).
off_kilter wrote:Truth is finding info on Area 88's releases can be confusing at best. If you look at the wikipedia article it claims part II isn't on the ADV releases, when in fact it is. All ADV did was condense the two OVAs into one film with the only thing cut was the title logo for part II.
I believe CPM did the same thing, though I'd have to double check. Certainly they released the four volume OAV series on three discs/tapes, probably using the "movie" release of the first two episodes.
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Cerebral_Boar
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

Post by Cerebral_Boar »

Thanks for the information on yakuza types, DocWatson! I was the one who had asked about this during the panel.
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

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Cerebral_Boar wrote:Thanks for the information on yakuza types, DocWatson! I was the one who had asked about this during the panel.
You're welcome. ^_^ For more about the yakuza, I recommend (though this is by no means a comprehensive list, only what I have personally read and liked):
  • Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld (expanded edition), David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro (your first stop; the rest of the books are more specific)
  • Confessions of a Yakuza, Junichi Saga
  • Yakuza Diary: Doing Time in the Japanese Underworld, Christopher Seymour
  • Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, Jake Adelstein
  • Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan, Robert Whiting
ObTopic: Since the con, anime historian and superfan Fred Patten has published a chronological list of first releases from the U.S. and U.K. anime specialty companies, including CPM. And see Justin Sevakis' Tales of the Industry for an employee's viewpoint of CPM (not all of the columns are about him, however).
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

Post by Cerebral_Boar »

Thanks again, DocWatson!! I just added Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld to my to-read list.
Michael St. Pierre
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Senior Technical Staff 2018-2019

General Tech Staff 2020-present


"Ain't it funny how it is?
You never miss it 'til it's gone away
And my heart is lying there
And will be 'til my dying day"
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DocWatson
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Re: Central Park Memorial panel

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Cerebral_Boar wrote:Thanks again, DocWatson!! I just added Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld to my to-read list.
Again, you're welcome. ^_^ FWIW, Amazon.com doesn't mention any significant differences between the 2003 expanded edition and the 2012 25th anniversary edition. While checking that, I ran across another book I've read: Toppamono: Outlaw. Radical. Suspect. My Life in Japan's Underworld by Miyazaki Manabu and Robert Whiting. Manabu is from Osaka area yakuza family and is a former left-wing student radical. He may not technically be a yakuza himself, but he did make his living through crime.
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