[Ads-l] Antedating Japanimation

[Jeff Prucher]

 In another FB post, Proctor states "The term's first documented print usage appears in early 1979, tied directly to Gafford. In the C/FO's inaugural membership roster, published in a June 1979 fanzine (likely C/FO News or a related club bulletin), Gafford was listed under his fan nickname as "Carl 'Japanimation' Gafford." This roster was a mimeographed or photocopied document circulated among the club's ~50–100 members, serving as both a directory and a hub for fan credits or aliases."
But he doesn't provide images.
https://www.facebook.com/roger.proctor.318334/posts/starting-research-on-the-word-japanimationthe-term-japanimation-a-portmanteau-of/2502580010117479/


    On Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 09:28:57 AM PDT, Ben Zimmer <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:  
 
 An example was found in a 1980 zine by Roger Proctor:

"Japanimation" by Damon Foster
in: Japanese Movie Sci Fi #4, 1980, p. 8
page image at 1:10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTRBgV9Sm8k

discussion here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/970847522952602/posts/24872746272336059?comment_id=24926253836985302


On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 9:02 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> 2003 F. Patten _"Anime" Versus "Japanimation"_ in _Watching Anime, Reading
> Manga_ (2004) 85
> "Japanese animation" soon got condensed to "Japanimation". By the early
> 1980s, it was so widespread in fandom that some fans got into an argument
> over who should get the credit for inventing the term. This set off a brief
> historical search through old anime club newsletters and correspondence for
> the earliest use of the word. The oldest found was in late 1978 in
> correspondence from Carl Gafford, who claimed that he had already been
> using it for some time by then.
>
> Fred Patten died in 2018. Carl Gafford died in 2020. There are no
> citations in this essay, but presumably it would be possible to track this
> down.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 05:43:59AM +0000, Bill Mullins wrote:
> > OED has 1985
> >
> >
> >
> > 1983 Cartoon/Fantasy Organization Bulletin #22 21 May 4
> >
> > Ed Noonchester brought a tableful of Japanimation cels for sale.
> >
> >
> https://archive.org/details/1983-05-cfo-bulletin-22/1983-05%20CFO%20Bulletin%2022/page/n3/mode/1up?q=japanimation
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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