LACon II
This article or section needs expansion. |
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Name: | LACon II |
| Dates: | August 30- September 4 1984 |
| Frequency: | |
| Location: | Anaheim Hilton and Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA |
| Type: | |
| Focus: | Science Fiction |
| Organization: | |
| Founder: | |
| Founding Date: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
LACon II was the 1984 Worldcon, held in LA for the second time thus far.
Reports
Worldcon 1984, held at the Anaheim Convention Center and Anaheim Hilton, was a veritable haven for the Japanese animation fan. Not only was there an unsurprisingly well organized video room, but there were also opportunities to join in discussions of anime and science fiction in Japan with top professionals and fans from Japan as well as the chance to see a major anime film in 35 mm.The video room screened the usual variety of popular programs; Orguss, Cat's Eye, Yamato, Galaxy Express 999], etc., and lest we forget, the first episode of the English Tekkaman..... The main attraction in the video room was the premiere of Booby Trap, volume one of a series of 8 volumes of Super Dimentional Fortress Macross. Retitled Space Fortress Macross (or as the characters say Mac Ross, the giant Scottish Robot!), the entire series will be released by Harmony Gold on commercial video (see Starlog ad) in its "adult" form before the series is reverted for syndication with the [?] dialogue we all cherish... Carl Macek the producer of the Macross project revealed that Southern Cross and Mospeda will undergo the same treatment, eventually forming a trilogy (a la Voltron and Force Five?!?).
The first anime related panel was... the open meeting of the Star Blazers Fan Club.... A slide show presentation, "SF in Japan" was held Friday afternoon with Takumi Shibane, a leading translator of English SF into Japanese....
The Cartoon/Fantasy Organization's open meeting held Saturday morning, had more of a business like air compared to the Star Blazers Fan Club's meeting. Due to illness, Ann Nichols (President of the national C/FO) was not in attendance, never the less the panel did include such notables as Fred Patten and Barb Edmonds....
Doubtless, the big event of Worldcon was the screening of Kodansha's new feature based on E.E. "Doc" Smith's literary series, Lensman. The screening was attended not only by anime fans. Those who did not know otherwise were surprised to realize that it was a 'cartoon'.... While most of the "Doc" Smith fans smirked at the off base adaptation, they still cheered on the heros and villans when they appeared. All in all, this 35mm subtitled premiere was well recieved.
LACon II was topped off on Monday with the Animation World of Yoshinuki Tomino... His presentation included trailers from Gundam III, Ideon, and episode one of Dunbine with sub-titles, all in 16mm. The translator for Mr. Tomino was Frederick Schodt, author of "Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics."
During the question answer period, Mr. Tomino was asked... if he could give his own beliefs as to why anime characters lack Oriental appearances. The answer proved amusing to the Japanese in the audience. The reason says Mr. Tomino is because Japanese do not like to look at Japanese faces! They prefer Western appearances to their own.... Mr. Tomino also revealed that he is beginning work on a new series entitled "Zeta Gundam." Worldcon attendees were the first to learn of this, even the Japanese fans there were unaware.The Star Blazers Fandom Report, Issue 15 (archived by Cosmo DNA)