Things of Note:
1) This is the first regular screening of 2012. As such we have tried to start as many new series as possible.
2) St Valentine’s Day is February 14. This is the time the male member’s of the JAFWA committee await with bated breath giri choco. Of course, then we have to reciprocate on March 14.
3) Have you booked your table yet for the upcoming JAFWA Geek Swap Meet on the afternoon of Saturday February 25? If you do not wish to sell Geek related items, then save up to buy them.

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles

Free entry to all, as we demonstrate the various things that JAFWA can do.

In one corner we will have anime, another corner video games, in the kitchen there will be cooking. Sally will give cosplay sewing pointers, starting with the correct way to thread a sewing machine.
Who knows what else?

Some of our JAFWA regulars will be Lending a hand, though more volunteers makes it more fun.

Come see us at Collins Street Community Center on Collins Street just off Canning Highway in South Perth, just after the Doctor Who club “Westlodge” finishes their monthly meeting.

Details to follow at a later date, but be aware that there is no JAFWA sessions in January 2012. If nothing else, the Hall will be having its floorboards replaced.

Then there is assorted weddings, anime conventions and other distracting stuff.

Enjoy the Holiday Season!
And don’t forget to see Arrietty at the cinemas.

The tentative JAFWA program for Saturday 17^th December 2011 is below. To be held in the Collins Street Community Center on Collins Street just off Canning Highway in South Perth.

Things of Note:
1) During the evening of December 17, a Special General Meeting of JAFWA will be called to implement a series of changes. Could all paid up members be available to vote.
2) This is the last screening of JAFWA for 2011. We will have a Sci-Fi bonanza, and bring cake and sushi. Then no JAFWA till after WaiCon.

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles

* We are looking for members of JAFWA to be on our register for current Senior First Aid certificate holders.
* Ever wanted a night full of Yaoi or Yuri or Moe or something else? The committee is looking at starting a once a season themed night where our members can pick a theme for the night
* The committee is looking at re-writting and then replacing the current constitution and by-laws of JAFWA. We are seeing if the membership is agreeable to have the process completed for the next year election. Some of the changes are
- Changing the number of the committee from eight (8) to seven (7)
- Removing the vice president position
- Creating “assistant to” position for the President, Secratary, Treasurer roles
- Creating a marketing position for the purpose of making sure our deals (E.G. 20% off at Madman) are current and seeing if we can get similar deals with new companies/suppliers (E.G. Siren Visual)

Never Fear, JAFWA shall return. The tentative JAFWA program for Saturday 10^th December 2011 is below. To be held in the Collins Street Community Center on Collins Street just off Canning Highway in South Perth.

Things of Note:
1) During the evening of December 17, a Special General Meeting of JAFWA will be called to implement a constitution change regarding auditing. Could all paid up members be available to vote.
2) This is the last “regular” screening of JAFWA for 2011. All we have left is the marathon screening (SciFi theme) on the 17th, then no JAFWA till after WaiCon.
3) Madman has announced that the Studio Ghibli movie “The Borrower Arrietty” will be seen in theatres in January 2012. Don’t miss out!

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles

After the Event Afternoon, the tentative JAFWA program for Saturday 26^th November 2011 is below. To be held in the Collins Street Community Center on Collins Street just off Canning Highway in South Perth.

Things of Note:
1) Last week we discovered that we could get the Hall for this week, and the JAFWA attendees voted overwhelmingly in favour of this action.
2) During the evening of December 17, a Special General Meeting of JAFWA will be called to implement a constitution change regarding auditing. Could all paid up members be available to vote.
3) Movie Night! We are going to put on a movie tonight, the 15^th theatrical movie of Great Detective Conan. Appropriate cosplay gets in free.

Dale’s Suggestive Remarks, based on suggestion sheets handed in at JAFWA:
An unsigned missive that I suspect originated from one of our regular correspondents:

1.’Beelzebub’: Very funny. Although I doubt how long they can keep the quality of jokes & humour up as they always make a good episode 1 but mess up the rest of the show. About the ‘nudity’, I think it is insignificant by today’s standards.
2. ‘Read or Die’: Slightly anti-america, but acceptable. Although the fighting scene is kind of …. illogical. (How could a glider that can’t be shot down by Apache be shot down by a M-4 carbine on … another glider?)

Never underestimate how long a single joke can be run in anime. The first example I can think of is ‘Ranma 1/2′ where they made the martial arts boy can turn into girl supposition/joke stretch out for 38 manga volumes and as 161 anime TV episodes. Mind you the joke did wear thin after a while.
However with so much anime now available in this rich, rich period, the competition for viewer eyeballs is fierce, so you are correct that they really try and wow you with the first (or sometimes the first and second) episode, unlike earlier years where several episodes could go by before the main elements of the story appeared. Mind you, lately anime series tend to be only 13 episodes long, so they can’t faff around much.
As for the ‘nudity’, that was a joke comment by your ever loving MC. First ‘Dragon Half’ had a low anatomical resolution topless flash by the female character, so I thought it was appropriate that the next show that the naked baby’s low anatomical resolution full frontal nudity would balance things out. It got a laugh at least.

I am not certain that there was a specific anti-American bias to ‘Read or Die’, more a bias against the American president/leadership. But considering the show was animated before September 2011 (you can see the Twin Towers in the New York scenes and mobile phones had extendable antennas), it is unlikely that the author had had much exposure to George W. Bush’s shortcomings. Perhaps it should be seen as a polemic against the shortcomings of complacency and indolence of the modern consumer generation who have inherited the works of previous generations’ geniuses, when exposed to the raw nature of a previous generation’s genius. Or some such. What am I , a philosopher?
As for illogical battles, you have probably either not read super-hero comics and/or have been spoiled by the quality and consistency of anime. But if you were asking me to pull an explanation out of thin air, then the Lillienthal ‘Air King’ I-jin was using his superior maneouverability against long range rear attacks by obvious Apache helicopters, while was caught by surprise against a shorter range, more accurate attack from an unexpected glider to the fore. You try and do better. Exposition is limited in this series.

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles

Things of Note:
1) During the evening of December 17, a Special General Meeting of JAFWA will be called to implement a constitution change regarding auditing. Could all paid up members be available to vote.
2) Madman has announced that the Studio Ghibli movie “The Borrower Arrietty” will be seen in theatres in January 2012. Don’t miss out!
3) Semi-regular attendee Danae would like to show everybody her artwork. Check out superstarsagal12 on DeviantArt. It may be disturbing.
4) People have complained that JAFWA shows to much moe (aka ??). No, we can show so much more. Watch the first two episodes tonight.
5) We have halted “Fairy Tail” until 2012.

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles

Never Fear, JAFWA shall return. The tentative JAFWA program for Saturday 12^th November 2011 is below. To be held in the Collins Street Community Center on Collins Street just off Canning Highway in South Perth.

Things of Note:
1) We are continuing our trend to try and finsih all our current series bu the end of 2011, so that we can start 2012 with an almost all new program. As such, we will show two episodes of “Blood C” on the 12th.
2) People were quite adamant that we should show the second of the semi-biographical Animation Kuromi-chan OAVs.

Dale’s Suggestive Remarks, based on suggestion sheets handed in at JAFWA:
Comments on Anime by the ever reliable Thomson Han Yau Chow (22-10-2011):

1. Hanasaku Iroha: A very good one. I would like to watch the sequel (NOY if it means losing ‘Working II’).
2. My wish-list for our new line-up (so far):

• 1. ‘Index’ season II.
• 2. ‘Kamisama Dolls’ or ‘Sacred Seven’
• 3. Kamisama no Memo-chou
• 4. Nodame Cantabile: Paris
• 5. Working! II.

3. ‘Hidan no Aria’: if we need a anime full of action & gun-fight, this one might do.
4. ‘Fairy Tail’: Although this one keeps going, I wouldn’t mind to keep it in program longer

Yes, I am hoping to put ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ into the program. I am not even certain that ‘Working! II’ has been made yet, it could just be a rumour (crossing my fingers, I suspect that the Colours of Blooming is more socially/culturally relevant).
And what do you mean sequel to Hanasaku Iroha – that was not a one-shot, merely episode one of a continuing series.

The problem is that ‘Fairy Tail’ keeps going on and on and on. Up to 100 episodes in Japan now. So rather than have the same problem with ‘Bleach’ and ‘Naruto’ where week after week wore down our patience, we are looking at halting ‘Fairy Tail’ at the end of each story arc, give our faithful JAFWAites a few weeks to clear their heads, then ask if we should resume screening ‘Fairy Tail’ for another story arc worth. The current story arc finishes with episode #48 at the beginning of November.

Then a signed suggestion was handed in on 22-10-2011:

Please preview Fate Zero
it looks like it is going to be better then the original.

Greg McLeod

I must admit that when we previewed the first ‘Fate/Stay Night’ episode it was not received well. Then again the first season of ‘Full Metal Panic’ did not go down well with JAFWAites, the second season – fumoffu – certainly did.
OK Greg, I will have to find somebody with a copy of Fate Zero and we will see what we can arrange.

And lastly an unsigned suggestion:

* Hanasaku Iroha – This is a favourite, I am glad it is being previewed, can we keep it???
* Soro no Woto – another favourite. Any chance of an airing? Even as a preview?

I personally would like to have ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ as a regular item, as it is my personal inclination that this would be more socially and currently relevant, with less saccharine overload, than another season of ‘Working!’. No decision has been made yet, and am hoping that the latest survey will strongly influence this series inclusion (now if only the survey was done this coming week rather than last week). However, as always the JAFWA program choice inclusion process is fraught with ambiguity, oddly influenced (3 question marks?), bad timing, and arguments over genre balance. Sometimes we even do a good job

I regret to inform you, but JAFWA has previewed ‘Sora no Woto’, back in August 2010. I was rather enamoured by this low fantasy tale of a naive young bugler posted to a lonely military outpost. However, in the current survey listing of Best shows by Ranking, ‘Sora no Woto’ appears as a disappointing #53.
Sorry.

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All items in the original Japanese language with English subtitles