The anime room will be bringing you tales from the past, future, and slightly sideways to the present from 10am-2am Friday, 10am-2am Saturday, and 10am - 3pm Sunday.   Come excavate this aspect of Loscon 34 by joining us in viewing some of this media during the convention.   See the location of the Anime Room on the Hotel Layout Page.   The schedule of Anime Programming is posted below (remember some alteration is possible between now and the convention).   We are also looking for volunteers to man the room - earn those all important volunteer hours toward some fabulous awards by sitting around watching anime!   E-mail  contact@cinemaanime.org  for more information, or to find out about Cinema Anime, one of the LASFS's anime clubs.   Sign up with Volunteers for a shift operating our advanced technology.   Meanwhile, check out the list below of archaeology and paleontological related anime that Fred Patten (last year's Fan Guest of Honor) has compiled for us.   If you have any suggestions to add to this list, we would be very interested to hear them.   E-mail these suggestions to webmaster@loscon.org.

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Ellcia (1992, 4 Episodes)

Ruin Explorers (1995)

Castle in the Sky

Agent Aika (1997, 6 Episodes)

Explorer Woman Ray (1989, 2-Episode OAV Series)

This anime series was presumably intended for 4 episodes but was aborted due to poor sales of the first two. Ray, archaeologist and black belt, is on an expedition to learn the secret behind the mysterious mirror left to her by her father. She travels to a remote corner of the world where a vast, legendary temple has been found. The whole production feels like an Indiana Jones parody with the swashbuckling professor of archaeology traveling the world with her bumbling sidekicks, searching for treasures and trying to stay away from her enemy and rival, an ambiguously-European man in a white suit.

Master of Mosquiton

Vampire Anime series.

Crystal Triangle (July 1987, anime OAV Feature)

A feature length made-for-video production telling a far-flung tale of a well-hidden ancient secret sought after by a Japanese archaeologist whose every move is monitored by the KGB, the CIA and assorted Japanese higher-ups.   There are elements of Indiana Jones, H.P. Lovecraft, the Bible, and lots of typical anime occult lore.   The spectacular finale is set on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and involves massive hidden pyramids, ancient machinery and a demure Japanese maiden who hosts an ancient secret.

Spriggan (1998 Anime Feature)

Yu Ominae is a Spriggan, a secret agent working for ARCAM, an international organization that seeks to keep the superior technology of lost civilizations and aliens from being misused.   Noah's Ark is discovered to be an ancient spaceship containing technology which could rule -- or destroy -- the world.   Yu is sent to Mount Ararat to protect ARCAM's research team from the sadistic cyborg super-soldiers of the Pentagon's secret "U.S. Machine Corps".   This work was promoted as in the action/sci-fi tradition of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the James Bond movies.

Devil Hunter Yohko 2

This anime is about evil demons that escape from the earth when an ancient talisman/rock imprisoning them is moved by a modern construction crew.   There are lots of anime titles about ancient demons/monsters/curses that are released when a modern skeptic destroys or removes a centuries-old talisman imprisoning them, but that otherwise have nothing to do with archaeology.

Coo of the Distant Seas (Tooi Umi Kara Kita Coo; 1993, 116 minutes)

This anime is basically a ripoff of Free Willy with a Japanese boy and his adorable baby plesiosaur instead of a whale, set in Pago Pago.   Reportedly the Fijiian tourist office helped subsidize the feature for its backgrounds which makes the Fiji islands look like a vacation paradise.

Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Dinosaur (1980)

The first Doraemon theatrical movie is also about a little boy trying to protect a pet dinosaur, but it is much less serious.   There has been a Doraemon animated theatrical feature every year since 1980, and the TV series is up to around 2,000 episodes; most do not involve paleontology or archaeology.

Born Free Dinosaur Hunters (Kyoryu Tankentai Born Free; 1976-77, 26 TV Episodes)

Time-traveling big game hunters capture dinosaurs for modern zoos.   A mixture of animation and Godzilla-style live-action/puppet effects.

The Era of the Great Dinosaurs (Daikyoryu Jidai; 1979, TV Special Movie)

Love Hina (TV anime Series, 25 Episodes, April - September 2000, plus several TV special movies & OAV sequels)

One of the character, Seta, is an archaeologist, and some episodes have archaeological themes, usually humorous, as when the students help Seta on a dig and they discover the ruins of a forgotten turtle civilization.

Atragon

An anime series (which was also a live-action movie) with a minor archaeological theme about a flying super-battleship from Atlantis.

Master Keaton

An anime series about a university professor who is variously a detective, an archaeologist, an anti-terrorist expert, a psychiatrist, a financial genius, etc. in different episodes.

Gold Digger (American Comic Book in anime/manga style)

In Fred Perry’s Gold Digger, young fun-loving nympho human archaeologist Gina Diggers and her adopted sister Cheetah (actually a were-cheetah) roam the world looking for ancient treasures, most of which turn out to have ancient supernatural curses on them.   In the earliest stories Cheetah appeared in her human guise most of the time, but by now she seldom bothers to turn back from her natural appearance as a furry cat-woman with a body-builder’s physique.   Also, they have discovered so many hidden tribes of other animal peoples, both friends and enemies (and all with very sexy bods) that, at the moment, the ‘morphs usually outnumber the human cast.   Even the supernatural demons are usually furry.   Gold Digger started out as short stories in Antarctic’s pre-‘morph anthology comic, Mangazine, graduated to a four-issue mini-series, and now has its own monthly title that is up to #50.

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