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LIfestyles
ober 22,
-Wednesday • October 22, 1997
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iggime focuses on growing popularity of Japanese animation
By Travis Irby
Staff writer
nime, Japanime, Mapga. It has many
names, but Japanese Animation has a
^.growing legion of fans, who are looking
p forcadetsdmake ^ Japan’s biggest pop-cultural export
md unpopi'CelGodxilla.
ry them out c^n^ne is common term used to describe the
>le andrespc: ,an<se st yi e °f animation.
3 working it^ni' 116 has long been a huge industry in Japan
□ns abouttli tag as f ar back as the ’60s with science fiction
Negative ste >ed pirograms like “Astro Boy” and “Star Blazers.”
nilitary, paitShpws like “Speed Racer” and “Robotech”
e military' k ^ been airing in America for years,
the Corps. Although anime may be identified by many
aid he looks • ) Ph’ as being science fiction oriented, fans will
iture forthe ‘ nt out the medium is used to tell a variety of
o see a bigs neb from high drama to light comedy,
ars becaust [Japan, anime has spawned hundreds of
he way wers 8 ^r on series and movies. Only recently, has
Iso see perci ler f ca started to embrace this art form,
s’ academics Local video stores have sections devoted sole-
owime. Fulllength animated features likeAA:/-
and Ghost in the Shell, have experienced the-
> very loyal leal t elease.
i ir i The fan base is particularly strong in colleges,
and Aix.\. ^ hiany students devoting clubs and web
EN EVANS J es r° their favorite works.
Texas A&M has its own devoted group of ani-
3RPS COM'- i-rnaniacs. The group is called Aggime and of-
ftee screenings of anime movies and shows,
ryan Melcher, president of Aggime and a se-
1 have a (' rr n a nagement major, got involved with the
an increasec ,U P !lis freshman year.
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“I have always been a fan of anime,” Melcher
said. “So it was a natural thing to do.”
Melcher said the group usually draws any
where from 20 to 40 people to its screenings
held Monday nights at the Learning Resources
Department on the sixth floor of Sterling C.
Evans Library.
“Many times people will bring something
from their own personal collection to share with
the group,” Melcher said.
Melcher said there are some stereotypes
many associate with anime.
“People think anime is a bunch guys watch
ing robots with big guns,” Melcher said. “It could
n’t be further from the truth. Anime has a lot of
female fans and realistic plot lines.”
Anita Tong, Aggime member and a senior
journalism major, agrees with Melcher.
“Anime is the way to make movies in Japan, it
isn’t just girls with big eyes and guns,” Tong
said.’’There are sub genres aimed at all age
groups and genders.”
Tong said two of those sub genres are Hentai
and Shojo.
“Hentai is very extreme in terms of sexuality
and violence, it tends to have more of a shock
value,” Tong said. “Shojo is aimed primarily at
women and is usually created by women.”
Melcher said there are enough different vari
eties to accommodate most tastes.
“There is sci-fi, fantasy, action, comedy, dra
ma and everything in between,” Melcher said.
Tong said her friends have developed a taste
for anime.
“One of my friends will borrow one episode of
a series and then they’ll ask to borrow the rest,”
Tong said.
Businesses in Bryan-College Station are try
ing to meet the demand for anime.
BCS Books and Games offers a selection of
anime to rent. BCS employee John Roark said
the store’s selection started from his passion for
the medium.
“We basically started carrying anime because
I wanted to watch it,” Roark said.
“The store started out carrying a few titles, but
they became popular real fast,” Roark said. “Now
we have two walls filled with titles.”
Roark said the customers range from new
fans to those who have associated with anime
much longer.
“We have students from Japan and other
Asian countries come in,” Roark said. “They re
ally enjoy being able to get a hold of Anime, as
they have been around it their whole life.”
Large chain stores are also getting on the ani
me bandwagon.
Susan Westbrook, a manager at Hastings,
said anime is one of the most popular sections
of the store.
“I started here a year ago and the section was
only one small row,” Westbrook said. “Now it is
two very big rows.”
Anime has made the leap from the video shelf
to television. Several shows like “Sailor Moon”
and “Dragon Ball Z” have been dubbed and put
into regular syndication. The Sci-Fi channel reg
ularly show anime.
Please see Aggime on Page 4.
A&M student makes Seventeen model search
L
tina Liang,
iiosen as a
DAVE HOUSE/The Battalion
, a freshman biomedical science major,
finalist in the Seventeen model search.
By Marium Mohiuddin
Staff writer
ittle girls dream about it, big girls
try to attain it, and only a few actu
ally achieve it. The modeling in
dustry has grown since the ’60s with the
first supermodel Twiggy. Today, America
is just as captivated with models such as
Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell as
they were then.
It requires many photographs and a
lot of leg work. However, there are many
model searches allowing girls to get a
small break into the world of modeling.
Seventeen magazine holds such a
search. The winners of this search will
grace the pages of this November’s issue
of Seventeen. Among the eight finalists
chosen from this year’s contest, one is a
Texas A&M student.
Christina Liang, a finalist in the Sev
enteen magazine model search and a
freshman biomedical science major,
said entering the search was a sponta
neous decision.
“I was walking through the mall one
day with my friends and we saw a flier for
the search,” Liang said. “They said I
should try so I turned in my application
with only four casual photographs.
“I have received many compliments
in high school about being pretty and I
was voted ‘Most Beautiful’, but I have
never modeled.”
After turning in her application in
February, Liang was notified in March
that she had made the top 100. An esti
mated 25,000 girls had applied. By May,
Seventeen had informed her she was in
the top eight.
“They flew us to New York for four
days and we stayed in Manhattan,” Liang
said. “It was like a field trip. We had a
makeover, manicures and tours around
New York.”
Liang said the attention they drew in
New York was flattering.
“When we were walking around New
York we were wearing T-shirts saying that
we were finalists in the Seventeen mod
el search,” Liang said. “Many people
stopped us and asked if they could take
pictures with us. It was glamorous.”
The girls also were able to meet Matt
King, a professional model who has
worked for such designers as Ralph
Lauren.
Liang said the four days were highly en
joyable, but it was also a lot of tiring work.
“The schedule was rigorous,” Liang
said. “Our days lasted from 8 a.m. to 10
p.m. It was tiring and most of the girls
would sleep on the set.”
Liang said the photo shoots were fun,
but at the same time, they allowed the
girls to view a different side of modeling.
“For the photo shoots, the girls were
divided into two groups of four,” Liang
said. “Taking photos was not hard. The
photographer was great. She would tell
us exactly what to do. It was very relaxed
and casual and I felt professional.”
Liang said shooting in the middle of
the summer was a challenge.
“It was weird because we were taking
photographs for the November issue in
the summer,” Liang said. “We had to
wear thermals and pretend that we were
cold. We all were sweating. It was also a
shiny shoot so they put Vaseline on our
faces so we would shine.”
Liang said the carefree images the
photos depict are not as easy to achieve
as they might seem.
“They do a lot of things to make the
clothes in the photographs look better,”
Liang said. “They would pin them back
so they would form to our bodies and not
look baggy. For one girl they used the
whole box of pins to make the clothes
look nice.”
The magic of makeup and hairspray
can transform a person into the next
supermodel.
“There was one girl who looked like
me—veiy casual,” Liang said. “When she
came out of makeup she looked com
pletely different. She looked gorgeous.”
Liang said she was anxiously waiting
the release of the magazine.
“I was waiting a long time to see the
edition, and I could not find it any
where,” Liang said. “One day when I was
walking in Wal-Mart I saw the magazine
and dropped everything I was holding.”
Since the magazines have reached
newsstands, Liang said she does not feel
any different, since most college stu
dents do not read Seventeen.
Please see Liang on Page 4.
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