One of the many texts I acquired from M while in Hyogo. These, among several from the Raideen FC, Slapstick and letters from Makio Inoue to name a few belonged to his friend who passed away a long while ago. M's friend left him the estate and he let me have all of the books so long as I archived them. M's friend was an organizer with this particular club, though I only own a few books from this particular imprint.
This is possibly one of the most important of my possessions for the archive now, this fan club was a landmark in young women not only bolstering the popularity of a singular series, but also for the fact that Tadao Nagahama financially supported many of their efforts personally. The Brave Raideen FC boasted a membership of over 1000+ at its peak and lasted well into the early 1980s, years after Brave Raideen had been off of the air.
The group went on to not only support Raideen, but Tadao Nagahama's Robot Romance series alongside other works such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Zambot 3 and Daltanious. Osamu Ichikawa, Prince Sharkin's VA, was a major supporter alongside Makio Inoue, Akira Kamiya, the mangaka Keiko Takemiya, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Yoshiyuki Tomino and Makoto Kosaka.
Unique features of this particular issue are the classified ads, which add a different layer about fans organizing to meet as well as those who were seeking artists for other doujin circles. Ai Naniwa, who later became a famous parody artist in OUT and Animage, asks for members to meet up and consider joining a study group of sorts for Raideen and Voltes V while others ask for copies to be made of their cels, cel exchanges, settei sharing and even to simply hang out.
Many of the members were late high school age girls and college age women, later on including males of the same demographic.
----------------------
Internet Archive now allows for logins, however uploading is currently suspended. Once its back, I will update my uploads with MEGA links and blog links. A thousand thank you's to all who have been encouraging during my recovery as well as to those who have constantly encouraged me to continue pursuing something that is, quite frankly, more than a hobby for me at this point. I appreciate you all!
Questions? Comments? You can reach me faster at adoggoart@gmail.com or on x/twitter @retroanimechris. Bluesky is also an option @retroanimechris.
The printing was very faint and illegible at times due to age and a poor quality copy job on the printer's part even 40+ years ago. Some parts could not be salvaged.