Update 01/12/98:

Black and White Lists are still delayed due to unforeseen RL complications (including getting ready to move to a new apartment, health concerns, etc.) *sigh* I have a few starter leads that should go up soon though.

The Ghiblink project is still going- we ran into a slight snag over our site name however, and we're having to go back to the drawing board on it. -.-

In other brief, amusing (and ironic) news, the 'network that doesn't show anime', Cartoon Network, has picked up the old Harmony Gold Robotech package which apparently replaces Voltron in the "Toonami" lineup. For any of you that somehow might NOT know, Robotech was *the* starting show that got fans hooked in the US back in the 80's, as Sailor Moon and DBZ's dubs have been in the 90's. Containing dubbed (and heavily edited and rewritten) Japanese series Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada, the show is held in a strange position in anime fandom- both reviled and secretly enjoyed. Now, if they can only pick up Star Blazers...

Update 01/06/98: Over 6000 hits..

Okay, at the suggestion of Mike Johnson, the "Black List" will be countered by a "White List"- journalists and authors who are friendly to otaku. :) Mike, Jeremy Blackman, and I are working on a LARGE-SCALE project, which was spurred by this whole USA Today disaster. Call it spin-control for the side of otaku, with the backing of Team Ghiblink... I can't say much else about it yet, but we anticipate it will be a major force when it comes online. Currently we're still haggling the website design specs, getting the domain name and incorporation filing in order, and deciding what tactics we want to take for our goal..

Mandy O'Brien reports a curiousity I hadn't been aware of. She quotes: "Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions, or maybe I'm just paranoid... but the recent cancellation of Sailor Moon coincides all too well with this little uproar... they showed no signs of cancelling the show... anyway, shortly after the "Pokemon incident" the show was cancelled. This all seems just too coincidental to me." Hmm. Can anyone else confirm this? I made it a point to avoid the SM dub, so I'm not aware of its broadcast status.. drop me a line and let me know.

Here we go again... http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,2322,00.html was forwarded to me by alert websurfer Doug Larke and it is NEARLY as bad, if not worse, than the USA Today smear. Written by "Joal Ryan" on January 3rd, the article takes a very derogatory stance on the word that Summit Media will be trying to promote Pokemon for syndication next fall. Since the article cites USA Today *TWICE*, I have to question if there isn't a corporate connection somewhere.. Break out those e-mails again, kids.. news@eonline.com seems the best place to start. This information will be moved to the front page as well..

Update 12/30/97: We've passed the 5000 hit mark! Wow! Thanks, everyone!

Time is sure eating at me- getting up at 5 am and working 12 hour days (with transit) is kinda taking its toll. I'm doing my best to keep these pages current though! I've sent off a letter about this situation to Sci-Fi Weekly and American-based Animation Magazine. Waiting on answers back from those worthy folks.. Also waiting to see if we get anything from Robert Woodhead of Animeigo, who got a copy of my letter to the commercial companies earlier...

The big news is that USA Today has finally, after HOW long now? went ahead and printed one rebuttal letter, in their December 29th issue (page 12a, editorials, under the banner headline "Despite reports, Japan's 'anime' art not harmful") which lays out basically all of the arguments we've all been trying to make- that xenophobic reporting is unconscionable, that we have no right to judge another culture or to single out a whole artform for the accidental scene in one piece. I found the letter itself excellent (I'm just sorry I can't reprint it here for you all to read).. so at least they DID print ONE letter. Which is a lot better than none. If this is the ONLY response we can get out of them, I will admit to being disappointed.. but we got a LOT of good things going out of this- the fans organizing, the ABC News article- and we may still be able to push this through other circuits, such as other magazines, and get them to write something about it. At any rate, we can definitely put USA Today on the 'black list' of otaku...

Which smoothly brings me to the planned "Known Offenders" subsection of this page. I'm planning to try and get this feature up over the weekend of January 3rd, when I'll have a little more free time to go at it. I'll be looking for anime articles and links to them on the web, and as ever, you guys are gonna be THE big part of this. I've already had a couple of pointers to an incident involving TV Guide back in 93 or so.. I'm gonna hit the library and look that up if I possibly can. I'm also pondering developing some kind of 'guide' to current anime articles as they come out, 'rating' them according to their journalistic quality. That may be put into effect in the near future. As I said, I ain't halfway done yet with this...

Update 12/27/97: (4 AM Pacific) After taking a couple of days off for the holidays, (Hey, everyone had a good Christmas I hope?) We have a couple of updates for you. Xplo Eristotle suggests that now more than ever is a great time for us to 'bandwagon'- people might discreetly mail letters to their local and regional papers, TV stations, etc regarding all of this... He correctly adds that the media are no more immune to bandwagoning than anyone else.

Roger O'Connor of Anime Radio sent me a note reading: "We at Anime Radio are trying to lend support. This week's show focuses on the Incident itself, but we delve quite a bit into the USA Today article. I think you might find it interesting. FYI, you'll need at least a 14.4 connection, and Real Audio, Echospeech, or GSM/GSD streaming audio to listen. And thanks again for the site- you are making a difference." ;_; I can't listen to this myself, I'm running Linux at home, but I'll try and commandeer someone's Windoze box and have a listen. If you have the ability to, I say, check it out! :)

I'd like to add a new feature to this page, which I'll need help from all you readers out there to do.. I would like to start a list of 'known offenders', people who have in the past written biased articles, and if possible, pointers to said articles, as well as the publications they have appeared in. Not so much to single out one author over another, so much as to have a counterbalance, where we can point to it and say, "Look, we KNOW these people aren't credible sources when it comes to talking about anime- here's what they've said in the past." If you have any helpful suggestions with this, drop me an e-mail. :)

Update 12/24/97:Happy Holidays, everyone! I'll have more updates in a couple of days. n.n

Update 12/23/97: Folks, we've just moved to the next level. The article by ABC News is up on the web; Here is the link to it. This COULD NOT have been possible without all of you, everyone who wrote in and everyone who kindly passed the word of mouth on. (They plastered my name all over the article, but it's really ALL of us- this sure isn't about me personally.) I realize this isn't a full victory yet- we still have no answer from USA Today.. but it's one HELL of a big step closer, and a definite victory for the defense of anime's image... :) I also now have a brief response from Tim Friend up. *breaking out the champagne glasses* Ganbatte ne!

More info: Kevin Dodgson and the Virginia Animation Society have done a top notch job of gathering additional information for the cause. Here is an update from them.. Mike Johnson of nausicaa.net suggests we send nice letters to ABC News thanking them for the article, correctly pointing out we should praise fair journalism as much as we criticize poor journalism.. I agree, but want to look into what the best way to handle this would be before encouraging everyone to start mail-floods. n.n

SPECIAL update 12/22/97: Myself, Jeremy Blackman, and several others were interviewed by phone by a reporter from ABC News for an article that is in production now about this whole incident. I will have links and commentary available as soon as I get the copy from the authors. o.O Added an excellent article from "EX" on "The New Stereotypes of Anime and Manga".

ALSO: I've received information from a source I can not name at this time who has made me aware of these responses from the authors of the USA Today article:

Tim Friend was called in to write the last three paragraphs on the article- his only contributions were those that related to the scientific aspect of the story. I sent an e-mail to him asking for any further comments he might have. Jefferson Graham claims no knowledge either of the letter which I sent him, nor of the controversy- he stands by his story. We still have no word on editorial reactions of any kind from USA Today itself.

Update: 12/22/97: This page has been selected as one of the Anime Web Turnpike's sites of the week! Wow. o.O Thanks to everyone- it's because of your responses that we're there! There are more fanfics and new info as well- check out J. Andrew's FY MST of the article! :)

Update: 12/21/97: We have some new, additional information and counter-spin to the USA Today article below. Check it out! We now have around 115 letters to the editor by my count, in 52 hours. I encourage everyone to continue writing them.. HOWEVER... I have to ask now that you no longer split off copies to me. I've begun to experience hand problems from keeping up with the processing of them, and my site doesn't have infinite amounts of space, much as I might wish otherwise :) So, although I'm sorry to say, as of 1 PM Pacific time today, I can no longer archive letters. Let me assure you however, this is FAR from the end. This page, these archives, and its intent are NOT going away any time soon, and I will continue updates whenever I receive any new information. It's just time to move to a higher level of response.. >:)

What I ask that we all do instead now is start sending snailmail letters to USA Today... as Xplo Eristotle wisely stated, it would take actual EFFORT for them to deal with physical paper responses. It seems we will have to take this into the physical world if we want a response, retraction or apology from the editors of USA Today. Here is the address:
USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd 22nd Floor, Arlington, VA, 22229. The same rules apply to the snailmail letters as to the e-mail: keep it clean, and give RL name and phone number to verify with. I urge everyone to do this- it's cheap, and much harder to ignore. Again, I wish to thank everyone that has written in with e-mail to this point. Your efforts are sincerely appreciated.

I've also gotten my first negative mail on this campaign, from Jason Ruff, and in the interest of fairness, it is available for reading here. I have no comment except this: If 115 people (and those are only those who've responded) feel there's something wrong with this article, it's not just me or some 'political correctness' issue. I've made a point not to tell people what to think. All of the letters here and all of the responses are people freely making up their own minds about what they have read, just as you have done, Jason.

Update: 12/20/97: We have been on the Anime Web Turnpike since yesterday morning and the response has been wonderful. I want to thank everyone who's written so far and urge others to do so. I have received a barrage of letters, nearly 100 in 36 hours, absolutely astonishing numbers. So much incredible support, from presidents of anime clubs, the Director of Marketing and Sales for Viz, to the backing of Team Ghiblink- artists, writers, EVERYONE. To rephrase William Wallace: "They can bash our hobby.. they can cancel our Pokemons.. but they'll never take.. our FANDOM!" ^_- Thank you so much to ALL who've sent me updates of information and URLS to other places- I am looking into those and will update the page accordingly.