Chris Kanther: Author, Archivist, Podcaster

Tag: fandom

  • Return of the Star Wars Mania

    My vacation reading binge.
    My vacation reading binge.

    Almost by accident (fate?) I happened to walk into Target on Force Friday.  And was forcibly reminded by a million displays that (if I wasn’t already aware from the news articles that seem to come out minute-by-minute) there is a new Star Wars movie coming out this December.

    So I think I’m gonna party like it’s 1999.  Because that was definitely the last time Star Wars was given such a huge push in our collective cultural consciousness.  I remember seeing products for The Phantom Menace everywhere from Taco Bell to Pepsi cans (only a few years ago we unearthed the character-specific cans from Episode I at my parents’ house and finally got rid of them. Heh.)

    I feel lucky to have come to the Star Wars franchise at a point in time where it had ebbed in popularity.  I first saw Episode IV in the early 90s when my Mom bought it on VHS as a gag gift for my Dad.  Well, suffice to say my brother and I were hooked from the moment the Star Destroyer came onscreen.  This gag gift led to many years of renting (over and over again, as Mom is quick to remind us) The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from our local Star Video.

    The only thing at that time for Star Wars fans outside of dusty VHS copies was the excellent Timothy Zahn trilogy: Heir of the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.  (I actually only read those books all the way through a few years ago.)

    Then came the now-reviled Special Editions, which really kicked off the modern era of Star Wars as a franchise, eventually birthing the Prequels, comic books from Dark Horse, tons of novels, and action figures galore.

    Star Wars is pretty much knitted into the fabric of who I am as a person.  I think it was really the first story that I fell in love with, and certainly the first story where I absolutely wanted to know what happened next.

    Yet somehow, I never got deeply into the Star Wars EU, and truthfully, by the time Disney bought the franchise and decided to nuke the EU to make continuity less of a pain, I could totally understand their reasoning.  Truthfully, I was actually kind of excited.  Much like DC Comics and their New 52 reset, rebooting the Star Wars EU meant that I would finally have a good jump-in point to start enjoying Star Wars expanded universe material again.

    And of course, I was tickled by the idea that the new material is now considered “canon.”  Yes, there are things I wish they had kept like Shadows of the Empire and several of the Prequel-era stuff like the Jedi Apprentice children’s book series, but reading through the five books pictured above made me realize how great it was to read material that was informed by the Prequels, The Clone Wars series, Rebels, and even hints at the new trilogy.  Little throwaway comments like the age of a beat-up old ship being “Clone Wars era” instantly helps you date things now.  It adds a beautiful cohesiveness to the universe that simply wasn’t there before.

    I’m trying to not let myself get completely swept away with Star Wars mania again this time around (unlike 1999, haha).  But boy, is my inner kid practically quivering with excitement to find out what Luke, Leia, Han and all their friends have been up to for the last 30 years in a galaxy far, far away.

    And after reading those books, I think it’s going to be a fun ride.

  • Launching The Jewel Riders Archive

    I meant to write about this twelve days ago before going on a little week-long road trip I just got back from, but my brain was already in vacation mode by that point.

    First, a little history: for the past few months, a friend and I have been working hard on designing a home for Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders on the web.  It’s my favorite childhood cartoon, and I’ve always lamented the fact it doesn’t have a proper web home (or even a DVD release!)

    Little Chris™ loved Jewel Riders because of its western, Arthurian-flavored fantasy, sparkly magical girl trappings, catchy musical-style music, its strong and competent heroines, and of course its cute male lead. 😀

    We’ll be updating the site with content on the 10th of every month, and I hope that The Jewel Riders Archive can be a great home for my favorite property for many years to come.  I hope you check us out at jewelridersarchive.com and see the great content we plan to feature!

  • Spelunking through the VHS Fansub Era

    My parents have been harping on me for years now to go through some of the stuff I’ve left behind at their house.  When I originally moved to the North State, I never imagined I would be here for five years, so it didn’t seem necessary to move a lot of my stuff with me.  I left lots of books, toys, posters, comics, and the like in my old room.

    Well, regardless of how long I’m going to be here, the parentals are putting in new carpet soon, which finally required me to actually go through some of that stuff.

    And as part of that, I unearthed two shoeboxes full of VHS fansub tapes!

    So beautiful.
    So beautiful.

    For those who were not part of the anime fandom during the halcyon days of the mid-to-late 90s (or are too young to remember days before legal streaming anime was available), fansub tapes were put together by fansub groups who would record anime off of TV in Japan, then translate and subtitle the shows for viewing here.  These were all unofficial, of course, and when series would be picked up for U.S. distribution the tapes would stop being provided.

    I watched TONS of anime on fansubs because when you could get a tape for $5-7 for four episodes and a commercial release VHS was $30 for TWO episodes, well, I could do the math.  The owners of our local comic shop at the time actually produced several of the fansubs in those boxes from translation to production, and they were our main “supplier.”  They rented commercially released anime tapes from a back room, and you had to know to ask at the counter for the list of available fansub tapes.  (It all sounds incredibly seedy now!)

    I’m grateful for those fansub tapes.  Without them I would never have discovered the incredible, crazy, amazing world of Japanese animation.  Anime tells stories that you can find in no other medium, and I think it has profoundly influenced my writing and what I find “cool” to this day.

    I’ve actually replaced almost everything in these boxes with DVDs or Blu-rays.  Heh, my only question now is what on earth to do with these tapes?  My inner hoarder has placed far too much emotional significance on these bricks of film and plastic for me to be ready to part with them yet.  Maybe I’ll dust off the VCR, buy some Crush Grape Soda, and have a nostalgic anime viewing party.

    (For those who really want to know, the series in those two boxes are: Edens Bowy, Omishi Magical Theatre, Weiss Kreuz, Utena, Hana Yori Dango, To Heart, Card Captor Sakura, Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses, Suddenly Princess, and the Ys II OAV)

  • The Persistence of Memory

    Of all things, these thoughts are attributable to Jem and the Holograms.

    Yup. These Holograms.

    I’m a pretty big fan of the show – it’s big, bold, fun, and actually more sophisticated for the era it was produced than most people give it credit for (you can thank uber-writer Christy Marx for that!)   The dolls being produced by Integrity Toys are also amazing, and I’m officially addicted to them.

    So you can imagine that I’m quite interested in how the upcoming movie is being torn apart and derided prior to its release by the fandom due to straying incredibly far from the source material.  Jem has always combined superstardom, fashionable excess, magical girl elements/secret identity plots, a great sci-fi element with Synergy, and the best music of the 80s.  So of course to see the upcoming movie pretty much jettison all of that material for the much more modern but less fabulous version of success via YouTube is a little heartbreaking.  I tend to think a straight period piece set in the 80s would have been the best choice for this film.

    But as disappointed as I am with what the movie appears to be (final judgment reserved until viewing, of course), my heart is warmed that so many people are speaking out.  Their memories of this franchise are strong and warm, and seeing it trampled like this outrages them.  Jem is the first big 80s female-targeted property to get the movie treatment.  She deserves the same respectful treatment of source material and love that have gone into the Transformers, TMNT, and GI Joe films.  Though they’re not always great movies, they take where they come from seriously and don’t try to hand wave it away as unimportant.  I hope if we ever see She-Ra or Rainbow Brite reboots the creators learn from this debacle.

    It’s been a long-held daydream of mine to have something I create be loved and live as long in people’s memories as Jem has.  I want that for the characters that have lived with me and played in my head for so long.  My characters and stories are all part of the persistence of my memories.  Some of my stories have been with me since I was nine or ten.  If they hadn’t stuck around inside me so long and instead faded away like many childhood memories, I probably wouldn’t be here writing this post today.  I may have even been happy with my boring day job.  So I’m thankful for my characters – that they had to gumption to turn themselves into persistent memories that have influenced the course of my life.  Who knows where I’d be without them.

    And here’s to Jem.  *Raises a glass of sparkling pink champagne*  Thanks for reminding me of the truly outrageous power of fictional characters and their stories.   I hope mine can stand proudly next to you someday.