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|  | BEHIND THE SCENES: ANIME 101 IN UP ARKI continued... 3. How many people attended the first screening? What was your reaction to the number of people who attended? Hitman: There were around 60 people, I think. I guess their reaction would best be described as glued to their seats. I remember there was an incident where everyone was watching Armitage III and someone accidentally pulled the plug from the socket so everything went dead. When that happened, some in the audience went, "Nandato?" which I think they thought they were saying "What the f***?" in Nihonggo since that was how it was fansubbed. So we had a captive audience. JJC: Quite a lot of students from other colleges. The room probably had around 80 or so people. The numbers were satisfying and a good run for the first two days. Fox: We did inaugural show on two consecutive days. Man, the projector we used was not as sharp as the one we have now --- the screen was facing the wrong way, getting hit by late afternoon sun. Y'know, first-time errors and stuff. But surprisingly, 80-some people popped up each day. New faces each day too. The reaction was one of positive surprise. I was totally unsure if people would come... if any people would come. After all, we only posted posters 3 days before and those were stolen about 2 hours after posting. Kleptomania still lives in some students, I guess. But considering such a limited poster exposure time, we got a real good turnout. I’d say the surprise was as strong as our Jan. 2000 show where we reached 200 people (sobrang dami [really a lot], unbelievable). Sailor: The screenings turned out good enough to make us consider doing it monthly, twice. I can't remember the exact number, but I figure it was less than a hundred. It was great knowing that there are actually other people who like anime. Back then, I had a distinct feeling I was almost alone. All my other friends and acquaintances don't even remotely like anime. And it's a wonderful feeling knowing all your hard work (and it was hard! a lot of time, effort and brainstorming went into it) paid off. The next screenings were up and down. Sometimes, we got a lot of people, sometimes as little as 30, but now we don't go below 80 people, I'm proud to say. 4. How long have you been into anime before you started anime@arki? What are your favorite titles? Hitman: I was into anime since 1992 (due to my seiyuu work) but I wasn't totally immersed in it until our friend started sending us most of the stuff in our video library list. For my favorites (whether TV series or OAVs or movies) are the following (in no particular order): Escaflowne (still the best), City Hunter, Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road, Nadesico, Bubblegum Crisis (both the old and the new), Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Oh My Goddess!, Video Girl Ai, Whisper of the Heart, Laputa: Castle in the Sky. These are just a few of the stuff I've seen that I really got to like. However, if we're talking about just one particular show that really hit me, it would have to be Kimagure Orange Road movie 1. This thing affected me for 2 days that I couldn't concentrate on my work. JJC: I was already into anime three to four years before 1998. At that time my fave titles were Record of Lodoss War and Nausicaa. Fox: I’d say about a couple of years. I started out with Nausicaa (dub - yuck) and Crying Freeman and Mermaid Scar. all dubbed. Didn't get what it was about then. A few months later, we got Bubblegum crisis and Kimagure Orange Road and City Hunter. Subbed. Then something clicked. Partly it was the language, the artwork, and the music. Then Ah My Goddess came in and Macross Plus and more and more... the soundtracks and involving stories hooked me. Sailor: Ever since I was little I already loved animation. Back then I mostly had exposure to the western type and I was a bit ignorant and disinterested in knowing of a title's origin. I remember watching the series Candy Candy so avidly and was quite disappointed when Ch 13 stopped airing. It was I think in 1994 that I was really plunged into anime, with the anime, Sailormoon. I had this terrible crush with the lead male character, Mamoru (up till now). After that, I wanted to get my hands on every anime title as I can possible get. My most favorites are Esca, Ranma, Wind Named Amnesia, Whisper of the Heart, Maho Tsukai Tai, and recently, His and Her Circumstance. I have a really varied taste. Western animation has become a poor second now. 5. Did you ever expect the overwhelming fan response? Hitman: Definitely not. We were always thinking of keeping a low profile and still keep on serving a few anime fans, never mind if we had less than 50 people every time. But I think things have worked out for the best that we now attract 100 regular viewers. More if it so happens that there's a popular feature in our lineup. JJC: No. Especially when we reach 200 people in the room Fox: After the first show, I knew A@A would stay around for a while. Didn't expect anything. didn't expect it to stay this long, didn't expect it to fold up. Didn't expect anything. I did expect awareness of the show to slowly course through the students of the different colleges month by month. In those earlier months, average was around 70 people per show, and we were cool with that. These last months (since January, in fact) average has been like around 100 to 110. Some months are more masikip, some months are less masikip (some months were crowded, some months were less crowded). I’m sure the show sked has something to do with that. While we now recognize lots of regular faces, we still look forward to more new faces. If we get more newbies, then we share more of these varied titles with more people. And that's one objective of ours too. Sailor: For an overwhelming response? To be honest, no. I didn't want to get my hopes up too high. But last January screening really blew me over. I never expected to see more than 200 people coming and determined to watch even though there wasn't space to even stand on inside the room. continued... [ prev page ] [ top ] [ next page ] |
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