Anime Bites

Produced in 1994 by Seishun Shitemasu - Liner notes by Josh

Mmm.. early CG titles. The Shinjuku loft is a hipster spot in Seattle. Really.

In 1983, popular legend has it that Brandon Tartikoff, the then-president of NBC, scribbled a note to himself during a meeting: "MTV Cops." This would later become fully realized as "Miami Vice."

In 1993, remembering that anecdote, the small thought "90s anime" came to me. I wanted something in the Singles or Reality Bites vein, with grungy music and a lot of 20 somethings jamming around and not doing much of anything.

From Left to Right: Spoonman, Eddie, Sid, Jacques, and Karen.

As Con season approached in 1994, and again with not much else in the way of obvious ideas, we started to scour the earth for footage that would serve our purposes. Something that was well animated and preferably off laserdisc and still met the plot requirements. I scanned the Anime Resource Guide from AnimExpo 1992 (Hey, those things were useful after all!) and came across the To-y entry. I'd vaguely remembered watching it years before. Sometime in the 80s, proto-Seishun member Chris Lockwood, now living the high life in Tokyo and wisely distancing himself from us was big on To-y and he had loaned me his copy. Upon reading the synopsis anew in the ARG I knew we'd found the footage.

I must admit, To-y looks terrific, and still seems quite modern despite being nearly eighteen years old at this writing. Nicely stylized music interludes, slick animation. And perhaps best of all, it's an obscure title. And even today, the English rights remain unsold, and our version remains the definitive English version! Ha!

Rocking out to Lucy's Fur Coat, I think.

So we worked on it for most of June of 1994; we snipped out a few scenes here and there but by and large kept the original plot of To-y intact. Anime Bites was less a parody dub and more a humorous remake of the original, one that even fans of the original didn't hate much. Yes, we ratcheted up the sex and drug jokes. The "Kurt Cobain" joke, which felt like it had perhaps minutes of shelf life, continues to elicit nervous laughter, some ten years later.

Quick! Pretend you're Kurt Cobain...

Still, the most important element of Anime Bites was the music. Any 90s movie worth its salt requires a good soundtrack, and since we were unconstrained by budget we could use music from any source. Much of the soundtrack ended up coming from other soundtracks: The Crow or Singles. Both of these discs are full of great (and now, largely forgotten) tracks by the big names. In keeping with Bites' superficial similarities, virtually all the important scenes are scored from Singles. Rounding out the music were several tracks from local acts, as at the time San Diego was being widely trumpeted as the "next Seattle." I'd wanted to use some Nirvana for balance with the three Pearl Jam tracks, but, well, but neither track I'd planned on quite worked out (for the record, I was hoping to use Drain You, off Nevermind somewhere, and we slated Endless Nameless, the hidden track on the first pressing of that same CD for the "Hey, they're tight tonight" scene. The Deathtongue reference, brilliantly recorded by Max and Phill, works better?).

Courtney or Karen, who would you choose?

Of all the productions made during the second life of Seishun Shitemasu, I think Anime Bites came closest to our vision, and so remains a personal favorite for many of us.