From: "'Gary Whelan'" <gwshogi <at> ENTERMAIL <dot> NET>
Date: 26 sep 2002
Subject: Re: Promoting Shogi overseas (was: HABU INTERVIEW (revised))

>What you need is an anime on Shogi, which fan-
>subber then translate. The
>fans will then find out about it and then you'll
>get more players. I know
>more people who know about Go, than shogi. You
>can thank the manga & anime
>"Hirakru no Go"...

This may be, seriously, the best idea yet.
America's brief love affair with chess during the
Fischer era was due to the popular media's
intense coverage.  This is the only way anything
becomes popular these days.  A long anime series
like Dragonball Z, maybe with the mythical
articles being shogi pieces instead of
Dragonballs, and maybe with characters named Uma
and Ryuu-O and Kin-Shou, would get millions of
western kids interested in Shogi.  Each character
could have certain powers that somehow reflect
the nature of the piece he/she is named after.
They could fight battles in an arena of 9x9
squares.  Of course, this is beyond any of our
abilities.  Somebody in japan should write a
script and pitch it.
As for more realistic measures all I can say is
that no one introduced me to shogi.  I read an
article in an old issue of Chess Life, did my own
research, bought a set and some software and
taught myself everything.  I can't be the only
person who would react this way.  There must be
inexpensive means of simply making more people
aware of the game's existence.  I think it would
then promote itself.  One paragraph in a major
news weekly could work wonders.