*** A weak and frail Andre rises from his sarcophagus.
He approaches a curious looking pond, surrounded on
four sides by ominous looking statues. Wierd music
begins to play.... 

" Ancient Spirits of Evill... 
 Transform this decayed form.. 
 To SHINOBU-RA, the EVER-LIVING!!!" 

BwAHH HAAH haAAA!!! ****

Stiffany-
>Okay.  Can I ask you one question?
>Do you have a phobia? 

Yes Ma'am. I am deathly afraid of Heights!! It's
something I've learned to live with, but it's still
terrifying at times. 

Son of Washu- (In reference to Tenchi shown on US
cable)
>This is the show that will, for better or worse,
>result in the success or failure of mainstreamed
>anime in America. 

>No, we have a duty, as fans, as otaku, as intelligent
>people who love a genre.

>right now, the mass of anime-lovers, or
self->proclaimed anime lovers, enjoyed maybe one, 
>two series, most likely Fist of the Northstar is the
>ultimate in anime they could ever wish for.  That's
>who we are judged by, that is what anime is 
>judged by. 

You're right sir. These are good points. I represnt
the "mass of Anime Lovers."
I'm not an otaku. or Fan-Boy. I am totally ingnorant
to these concepts. I'm just a casual guy who just
happens to love Ranma 1/2. I don't care if Anime gains
mainstream acceptance of not. Not to be negative neh??
(^_^) 
    
The reason why I say this is because I don't have any
loyalty to "Anime", only to Ranma 1/2, DBz, Sakura
Taisen, and Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. I only care about my
series, which is how the mainstream will react as
well. It's not about the style of animation, it's the
series. Can most people relate to Ranma?? If not,
they're not gonna watch it. 

    As far as politicians are concerned, I don't give
a fludge about them. The more serious Anime was always
an underground kinda thing anyway. I don't think that
is gonna change much. 

Mark-
>People might watch Tenchi and like it, but
>they might not see anything past a bunch of silly,
>big-eyed cartoon characters screaming at each other
>for thirty minutes.

I feel ya. I feel like the majority of Americans
haven't had the chance to watch Anime, unless you knew
somebody who could get tapes, and so forth. However,
the youngest Pokemon generation watches Anime
everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day!! (^_^) 

I LIKE pokemon, I watch it when I get the chance.
Hopefully, when these kids grow up, they'll be so
familiar with Anime that they can watch and appreciate
Tenchi, or Ranma, whatever floats thier boat. It will
be perfectly normal for them. 

Speaking of anime in general, I'm glad to see that
there are more people of color being represented. Back
in the Day, me and my homie would play this game
called "Find the Black people". The only anime I had
ever seen with us represented was 8-man After.
Nowadays, in Anime, as well as in Video games, there
are more black characters. Frankly, I'm honored that
Japanese creators and artists would even think to add
us. Most of the time, the actual characters are common
steriotypes, (The athlete, the happy go lucky party
guy, etc) I ain't trippin, as the saying goes. 

Some of my homies get mad. "Why do they gotta portray
us like that?" I figure cos they don't have a very
large African population in Japan, so they have to use
portryals from movies and TV. It's Gravy. 

What I am surprised about is that there aren't any
Latino/Hispanic characters that I've seen, except for
Robert Garcia from Art of Fighting, and Roberto from
Rival Schools. Japan has a fairly large Brazillian
population. Only Chinese and Japanese Koreans make up
a larger ethnic population there. Plus, a large number
of Japanese have emmigrated to South America. (Brazil,
Peru, Argentina) I figure that they would know more
about the Hispanics than they would know about
American blacks, and make characters based on that
population segment. Japanese and Japanese-Koreans have
some tensions based on past events, but Brazillians
have come to Japan of thier own free will for the most
part, so there is not as much prejudice towards them. 
Some Japanese discriminate. So do some ignorant Black
and White Americans. Unfourtuntly, it's a world wide
problem.     

Anyway, I'm done. Shinobu-Ra has left the building. To
my Hispanic and African brothers and sisters, if
you're lurking out there, and you've got something to
add, please post. To everybody on the ML, opinions are
welcomed.   

Peace to my Ranma Ml'ers. Shinobu.