In the wilds of Kyoto, I have been reading Orange Road and Ranma manga. Also questing for CDs, I've found Patlabor, Hakkenden, and Ranma CDs that are really good. Already, the CD for the new Miyazaki movie coming out this summer, Mononoke Hime, is in rental stores.

The anime showing in my vicinity on TV include Sailor Moon S, Yat Anshin, Crayon Shin-chan, Doraemon, You're Under Arrest (#10, 11, etc.), Gundam X, Sazae-san, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, (this new one about policemen taken from Jump comics), Asuki-chan, Slam Dunk, Mahoshojo Pretty Samy, Tarako, Ruru??, Ge ge ge Shintaroo, Hari, and a few others; I have my TV guides somewhere...

Alas, two of them, Gundam ZZ and Mahoshojo Pretty Samy, don't come in on my TV, so I can't watch them. They are on the dreaded Television Osaka.

Dragonball Z is a never-ending sci-fi soap opera that ends with a cliffhanger every week. The hero Goku and son are at present training with Trunks and his father to defeat another enemy. Piccolo joined with Kamisama, like Neelix and Tuvok did on Voyager last season to help fight him. There are Jinzooningen (man-made people), but I can never tell what they are doing. It's hard to tell if they are Goku's enemy or not sometimes. It's been on every day for a few weeks now. Dragonball GT I haven't watched very much but has all young versions of Dragonball Z characters. It involves a lot of robots, and I think it takes place on another planet.

Slam Dunk is about a high school basketball team and their games and experiences.

Yat Anshin is really cool. It's about a junky starship. The captain is an old grumpy fat man who always wears a robe. He has freaky robot/alien pilots. He runs his ship as a sightseeing cruiser, and his daughter acts as the stewardess. Somehow (I missed the early episodes), a young boy has to work on the ship. That young boy is the central character. He falls for the captain's daughter. There is also a burping creature that goes "BLAAAAAH" all the time. I have no idea why. That's the format, but each episode brings out weird plot twists and makes the history of the captain a little clearer.

The one anime that I can't recall the name of is also really cool. If you read Jump, you must have read it. It's about an Ohta-like (from Patlabor) character who is an ordinary policeman and his hyjinx. If you like Ohta, you will love this anime.