Dead English Language Tokusatsu Magazines: “Markalite”

Publisher: Pacific Rim Publishing Company
Format: A4 (Standard US Magazine Size)
Genre/Type: Tokusatsu, Anime, Japanese Cinema
Years Active: 1990 - 1991
Issues Published: 3

One of the rarest types of publication is the one dedicated to tokusatsu (Japanese special effects) films. Over the years I have searched high and low for magazines like this, but generally come up empty handed. I did discover Asian Trash Cinema (later named Asian Cult Cinema), but I was rather annoyed at its misogynistic tone and its focus on degrading exploitation films. G-Fan didn’t hold my interest either and seemed to have a very narrow focus on Godzilla. But there was one Tokusatsu magazine that stood head and shoulders above everything else; Markalite Magazine (a Markalite is the dish heat-ray weapon that appeared in some early Toho films, “The Mysterians” being the most widely known film to feature it).

The magazine was started by two of the most well-known men in tokusatsu fandom in America; August Ragone and Bob Johnson in 1990. Even now, there isn’t a great deal of information about tokusatsu films and TV series in English, especially compared to amount of information and resources that anime fans have at their disposal. This is why I find this magazine so amazing. It is just jam packed full of accurate, comprehensive and detailed information about a subject that was extremely hard to come across in the US. And that’s a claim that many of the English language anime magazines of the time couldn’t make. Certainly in some instances the information presented in those early publications wasn’t entirely accurate. It’s fair to say some of it was completely off the mark and rather misleading. But not Markalite. All of the three published issues ran around 96 pages and were practically filled to the brim of each page with interesting articles and information.

The debut issue had over 30 pages devoted to “Godzilla Vs Biolante”. There’s interviews with the director, the SFX director and even the man in the Godzilla suit, Kenpachiro Satsuma. But it doesn’t end there; we also have a long synopsis of the film, comprehensive biographies of the cast, a look at the special effects and behind the scenes, a complete cast and staff listing and some great side bars about why Godzilla never destroys the Imperial Place and who the heck that scary guy with make-up on was who made a brief appearance in the film (heavy metal singer and personality Demon Kakka). It’s just amazing. Most of the stuff in this magazine you can’t find on the web today.

Other really interesting articles included a listing of every tokusatsu TV show from the 1950’s to 1990 (including air dates, episode numbers, production company, actors and director), the role of aliens in Japanese sci-fi films, the Ultraman series, Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla films and number of then current tokusatsu TV shows. The greater majority of these articles were extremely will written and researched and a joy to read. On the anime side of things, a couple of articles are included, mostly about older anime such as “Gigantor” and “Kimba the White Lion”. Both were written by Fred Patten, a veteran of sci-fi, anime and furry fandoms who would later work for Streamline Pictures. While I really respect Patten’s work as a whole, a third contribution, an opinion piece about how anime in the late 1980’s didn’t stand up to what had come before it, is pretty absurd, more so in hindsight. In the article Patten makes the claim that anime had gone down dramatically in quality since the introduction of the Original Video Animation (OVA) format, and things were never as good as they were in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. He cites the rather mediocre “Genma Taisen” (released as “Harmagedon” in the US) and the rather flawed and overly long “Phoenix 2772” as examples of great anime (amongst the Gundams, Macross’, Yamatos and Harlocks he mentions) which only makes it even more laughable. Yes, I suppose only crap was released after 1985; “Project A-ko”, “Megazone 23”, “Bubblegum Crisis”, “Kimagure Orange Road”, “Touch”, “Akira”, all of them trash. The article’s accompanying satirical cartoon has Astroboy smashing his way through an Ingram robot from “Patlabor”. Yeah, that was trash too, and that no good director Mamoru Oshii didn’t do much after that stinker. Oh, don’t get me started on the 1990’s. “Evangelion”? Bah, not that great. Yes, we should all be watching old anime from the 1960’s and 1970’s because it never got any better than that, apparently.

Markalite’s short run also included interviews with Sonny Chiba and Robert Dunham (an American actor who appeared in many of Toho’s 1960’s tokusatsu films), obituaries for Japanese actors Akihiko Hirata and Jun Tazaki, the Australian/Tsuburaya co-production “Ultraman: Towards the Future (Ultraman Great)” series, Akira Kurosawa’s film “Dreams”, Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla films, Toho’s early special effects films, including the propaganda films made during World War II and the Hollywood live action adaptation of “The Guyver”. There are also some very intriguing titbits in the news section including a report on a never made remake of the 1960’s “Daimaijin” trilogy which was to be released in 1994 as a co-production between Daiei and Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest. There was some bad stuff in the magazine though; some of the writing, other than from Ragone or Johnson, felt a bit fanish and unprofessional. One issue had four reviews of “Godzilla Vs Biolante” over two or three pages, which felt really redundant. Some of the reviews also were rather overly critical of and unfair to films themselves, seeing as most of these films were low budget and B-grade. The magazine also included Maraklite Maidens, a pull out centrefold which usually taken from publicity shots from various films. Perhaps now days this could be seen as a little sexist.

Unfortunately disaster stuck the company only after three issues. Their publisher had some issues with the anime magazine he was publishing, Animag magazine which I have previously written about. Animag took their magazine elsewhere, and this must have been too much for the publisher financially, who delayed the publication of issue 4 of Markalite for over a year. The editors of Markalite eventually threatened to sue and they got their layouts of the magazine back, which were left on Johnson’s porch, water damaged in a plastic shopping bag. After that, the publisher allegedly skipped the state to avoid creditors, leaving Ragone and Johnson $1,200 in debt and having no way to contact the subscribers of the magazine as the publisher handled the subscriptions and had all of the addresses. What an absolutely horrible way for any magazine to end its life, and rather demoralising for its creators and editors. Afterwards some of the material meant for issue 4 ended up online at the Henshin Online website and also in the newsletter “Henshin!”. “Kaiju Fan” was the successor to “Markalite”, but I still haven’t found any issues of that. Bob Johnson would later co-found the SciFi Japan website, while August Ragone would continuing writing about tokusatsu films and would later write the book “Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters”.

For myself who has a bit more than a passing interest in tokusatsu TV series and films, I find it really disappointing that there isn’t a magazine out there which explores it in depth as Markalite did. Sure, the occasional articles in “Otaku USA” are great, but still I’d like a 100% tokusatsu focused magazine which looked at old and new series that I could pick up from my local comic book shop every time it came out. And sure “everything” is on the internet now days, but sometimes I think I’d prefer reading a magazine and discovering stuff I’d never find out about otherwise.

Unfortunately a lot of the coverage we do get, especially in mainstream coverage of the genre, is quite ignorant of the long history of the genre, it's tropes and conventions. Even today, most modern tokusatsu coverage still hasn't advanced much beyond cliches about men in rubber suits destroying miniature cardboard buildings (when of course it's plainly obvious that cardboard has never been used to create buildings in any tokusatsu film or TV series). In light of that, Markalite's existence and short life span is even more remarkable.

Anime Music Video Compilations: “Ranma ½ Hot Song Contest – Part 1”

Publisher: 5-Ace (Pony Canyon)
Format: VHS, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 22 minutes
Original Release Date: 7 November 1990
Animation Exclusive to this Release: Yes
Other Sources (Japanese unless noted): Ranma ½ Hot Song Contest (Laserdisc, VHS 1990), Ranma ½ Hot Song Contest (DVD 2002)
Currently Availability (as of writing): Out of Print

Despite the fact my early foray into anime fandom was the mid 1990’s, surprisingly I was never a fan of the “Ranma ½” franchise. Although little of the series was released on video in Australia (one OVA, one movie from memory), I found many local fans had paid a fair amount of cash to import Viz’s English dubbed VHS tapes. This was unsurprising as the series was huge in western fandom at the time. Based on yet another one of Rumiko Takahashi’s long running manga series and serialised in Shonen Sunday, the core anime adaptation (outside later specials) ran from 1989 to 1996 with numerous TV series, OVAs and movies. While Viz in the US released pretty much everything anime related to the franchise, this music video compilation, which is completely made up of brand new animation, was ignored by the company. I suspect that either a music rights issue or the fact it was too hard to dub the songs forced Viz to scrap any English language release of it. The video uses songs from the “Hot Songs Contest” Image album which was released in April 1990. For those who don’t know, an Image album is one where the voice actors perform songs in character. Kenji Kawai (of “Patlabor” and “Ghost in the Shell” fame) wrote the music for all the songs, though several writers wrote the lyrics. Two videos were released compiling all the songs from the album, both in November 1990. I’ll be looking the first video. But before we get to the individual music videos, I better tell you about the series;

Soun Tendo, head of the Tendo Dojo, is overjoyed that Genma Saotome and his son, Ranma, are coming to visit. Genma, like Soun, is a practitioner of the “Anything-Goes School” of martial arts. Years ago Genma promised Ranma would marry one of Soun’s daughters so the Tendo Dojo would carry on for at least another generation. However the girls, 19 year old Kasumi Tendo, 17 year old Nabiki Tendo, and 16 year old Akane Tendo aren’t all that terribly impressed that one of them will be in an arranged marriage. Rather than two men arriving at the Dojo, the Tendo family are absolutely dumbfounded when a teenage girl and panda end up on their doorstep, fighting each other. The girl later introduces herself as Ranma Saotome which only confuses them further. The odd pair explain that a month ago, Ranma and Genma trekked to China to train at the fabled Jusenkyo spring. However during their intense training, Ranma fell into the “Spring of Drowned Girl” while Genma fell into the “Spring of Drowned Panda”. Both have been cursed; when splashed with cold water they respectively turn into a girl and a panda. Hot water returns them to their original forms. Katsumi and Nabiki nominate Akane to be Ranma’s bride; however the Akane and Ranma refuse, despite their father’s insistence. However as the series progresses, they end up being closer to each other, although almost always end up bickering and fighting with each other.

Though wanting to return to the Jusenkyo spring in order to rid himself of the curse, Ranma ends up going to Furinkan High School with Akane. There Ranma has a rival for Akane’s affections, Tatewaki Kuno, the conceited captain of the school’s kendo team. But not only is he after Akane, he falls for Ranma’s female form as well. His sister, Kodachi Kuno, captain of the gymnastics team at an all-girls school, ends up being infatuated with the male form of Ranma. Yet another suitor for Akane arrives in the form of the Ryoga Hibiki, who has a terrible sense of direction and is always lost. In addition Ryoga also wants revenge on Ranma as he followed him to the Jusenkyo spring where he promptly fell into the “Spring of the Drowned Piglet”. Unware that Ryoga turns into a small black piglet when splashed with cold water, Akane takes in the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan. Ryoga uses Akane’s affection for him in piglet form to deliberately frustrate and anger Ranma. As the series progresses, several other characters appear, most whom have had contact with various cursed springs at Jusenkyo including Chinese Amazon Shampoo, who turns into a cat and is after Ranma’s affections and her childhood friend Mousse who becomes Ranma’s rival who turns into a duck. Other major characters include Happosai who is the elderly perverted founder and grandmaster of Anything Goes Martial Arts ,and Azusa Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin, the figure skating golden pair of Ranma and Akane’s school who just had fuel to the fire falling for various members of the Tendo household.

Once this main cast of characters is introduced, the series follows a formula of slapstick comedy with plenty of misunderstandings between various characters, most of which are never really resolved by the end of the episode in order to reuse the same misunderstandings for comedic effect later on. With that intro out of the way, time to talk about the videos;

“Little Date (TV Service Version)” Performed by Ranma, Akane and Shampoo [Megumi Hayashibara, Noriko Hidaka and Rei Sakuma]

The video compilation opens up with Shirokuro (Checkers in the English dub), Ryoga Hibiki's pet dog and Ryoga himself in P-chan form, switching on a TV. We are then introduced to the hosts of this video special; the nameless Chinese guide from Jusenkyo spring and Sasuke Sarugakure, the ninja of the Kuno family. After some brief introductions we are thrown into the first video, “Little Date”. This was originally the opening theme to the second TV series and performed by idol group Ribbon. This version is a remake with the voice actors for the female type Ranma, as well Akane and Shampoo singing the theme in character. The video is a simple affair which shows off the main characters and the choruses showing the main cast dancing. Unlike the other songs in this compilation, Tsugutoshi Goto wrote the music though Kenji Kawai arranged the track for this version.

“Anything-Goes Martial Arts Goes On ~ Panda Can't Sing the Song (Musabetsu Kakutou Icchokusen ~ Panda wa Uta wo Utaenai)” Performed by Genma Saotome [Kenichi Ogata]

The song title is literally a synopsis of the music video. Genma prepares to sing a song and asks Ranma to give him a glass of water. Ranma responds enthusiastically by throwing a glass of water to him, which naturally spills over Genma. In panda form Genma attempts to sing, while the Tendo household stare with their mouths agape. The video is shot mostly in the dark with spotlights passing the cast (I’m assuming to hide the limited animation), and due to the lack of light, Genma bumps into Ranma, which causes them to fight. Eventually water is spilt on Ranma which transforms him into his female form. This continues on until the set on the soundstage is destroyed. Afterwards a commercial appears for the Neko Shopping Network advertising the Nekohaten restaurant. Katsumi and Nabiki star along with Genma and Soun Tendo who appear dressed as housewives.

“Love Letter from China (China kara no Tegami)” Performed by Ranma & Ranma [Megumi Hayashibara and Kappei Yamaguchi]

The next video mimics a clichéd ballad done in a duet style and also satirises karaoke videos, including the subtitles and the old style laserdisc karaoke machines. The video shows the doomed love of Happosai and Shampoo’s great grandmother Cologne and is portrayed in the style of an old Japanese drama. The song is sung by both the male and female version of Ranama, with someone throwing hot or cold water on Ranma at appropriate timers to create the duet effect. While I find the metamorphosis gag in “Ranma ½” to be generally tiring, here the gag is used really effectively and is quite amusing. Afterwards Ryoga comes on to perform but is splashed with water and turns into P-chan. The Jusenkyo guide and Sasuke start to introduce Ryoga but are puzzled at his sudden disappearance.

“Uncute, Unsexy (Kawaikunee, Iroke ga nee)” Performed by Ranma [Kappei Yamaguchi]

This upbeat number has Ranma initially training and then fighting off a number of Akane’s suitors and rivals such as Ryoga Hibiki, Mousse, Happosai and Tatewaki Kuno. A great deal of the video is dedicated to various individual fights between those characters and Ranma and also a some sequences where all four team up to fight Ranma. The choruses have close ups of Ranma singing whilst two of his rivals squeeze the frame Ranma is in to push him out of the picture. Ranma retaliates usually by squashing his rivals. Akane later shows up the video joining Ranama, much to Ryoga’s frustrations, though some of the other rivals try to woo Akane.

“Two-Part Secret Heart (Heart Naisho/2)” Performed by Akane [Noriko Hidaka]

The Jusenkyo guide and Sasuke cross live to Tatewaki Kuno who is outside a concert hall which is hosting an idol concert featuring Akane. Tatewaki proclaims himself to be the head of Akane’s fanclub and rushes into the concert hall with a camera to film the concert. Akane jumps on stage in a stereotypical idol dress of the era and the enthusiastic audience performing the clichéd chants and calls at the appropriate times during the song. During one section of the song, Akane points at the audience with Tatewaki mistakenly thinking it is aimed directly at him. He gets over excited and rushes toward the stage which freaks out Akane who runs off stage in terror. Concert security tries to subdue him with the camera falling to the ground and eventually fading to static. Afterwards we are treated to faux theatrical trailer for an action film where Mousse is seen on top of the burning Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building fighting a helicopter and Shampoo is seen inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.

“Akane's Lullaby (Akane no Komoriuta)” Performed by Akane [Noriko Hidaka]

The final video is a collection of story book-like water colours mostly revolving around Akane and her nearest and dearest. The end credits are displayed over the top of the artwork. And that’s the end of the video. The second part, which I’ll be covering down the track sometime, was released about two weeks after this video.

As I said before, I was never a fan of this franchise, I tried getting into the series again after Viz Media began releasing the series on blu-ray, but soon discovered that after the main cast were introduced, it’s pretty much a one note joke revolving around easily resolved misunderstandings and the supposedly hilarious switching back and forth of various characters with water due to the curse placed on them by Jusenkyo spring. I find that sort of humour tiresome but note that a lot of Rumiko Takahashi’s popular longer works adhere to similar types of formulas for their humour. One of the problems I do have with “Ranma ½” as a franchise is that it hasn't aged well. In particular the deceptions of Chinese people seem to veer on rather unpleasant racist stereotypes.

Having said that, I do find a lot of the videos in this collection really funny. I think in smaller doses, “Ranma ½” can be very amusing. It still baffles me though as to why Viz never bothered to release this compilation, even as a sub only extra. In Japan the compilation was compiled with the second part on VHS and laserdisc in December 1990 (less than a month after the original separate VHS releases) and later on DVD in 2002. Strangely (as far as I can see) the compilation was never re-released as part of any DVD or blu-ray box set along with the TV series, OVAs or movies. The compilation is currently out of print in all formats. You can buy the separate VHS tapes for as little as ¥1, but the tape containing both parts usually sells for less than ¥1,000 in the second hand market. The laserdisc version sells for a little more than that. I found one set of new shrink-wrapped VHS tapes (both part 1 and 2) being sold for an astronomical ¥65,000. The DVD is quite rare. Second hand copies run well over ¥10,000.

In conclusion, this is a pretty fun music video compilation that should please both the casual and hard core “Ranma ½” fan. The main impediment for most fans however is the cost and rarity of the video itself in a legitimate format.