my take on old American anime magazines
Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 8:21 am
Protoculture Addicts (or as we called it, "Horticulture Rejects") was, in hindsight, not as bad as we'd make it out to be, but they ran a Captain Harlock article that was filled with factual errors. I mean, jam-packed. Couldn't take it seriously after that. Also, after a while the name 'Protoculture Addicts' gets to be kinda annoying in its very specific nerd focus.
Animenominous we couldn't pronounce or spell. Not a bad magazine, spotty distribution, heavy on the cutesy Urusei Yatsura stuff as I recall. Borderline zine-type content.
Animag got a lot of mileage out of that Zeta Gundam episode guide that they printed in installments and it took longer to see print than the actual TV show did to watch. Also one time they printed something that a C/FO member wrote, and they didn't give the C/FO member proper credit, and the head of the C/FO made a much bigger deal out of it than was really appropriate or necessary. Wouldn't be the first time that particular C/FO head would do such a thing, and that's part of why there isn't a C/FO any more.
Animerica started off with a big article on Macross II and how great it was. Since Macross II sucked, I mean SUUUUUUUCKED, it kind of tainted Animerica with the "corporate shill" brush. Lasted a long time but I never bought it.
Animeco was a magazine published out of Hawaii and it was laid out and printed really nicely and professionally and the content was typo-riddled, sub-fanzine drivel. One article about our fan parody group managed to completely miss the point of what we were doing and why we were doing it.
V-Max was as I recall heavy on the Gundam, SPT Layzner, Votoms, realistic SF robot fighting stuff that appealed to RPG gamers, which is good as it was published by an RPG gaming publisher. Once was on a panel at an early Anime Central where the editor sat in the audience and loudly argued with my predictions that anime would become mainstream pop culture entertainment in America. This was before Sailor Moon and Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, before the big anime boom, so I bet he feels kind of silly now.
Anime-zine had great mid-80s design but the articles were basically fan newsletter stuff. I mean synopses, like "here's what happens in Dirty Pair episode 5" kind of thing.
I pretty much assumed New Type USA would be a corporate shill for ADV. Was I right? At this point I don't know if it matters.
Anime Insider was not ever going to write about anything I was going to be interested in
Otaku USA actually paid me to write about Space Battleship Yamato, Speed Racer, and Captain Harlock. It is THE WINNER
here are some losers:
I took this photo at 2011's AWA. These were all $1 each.
Hands down the worst North American anime magazine I ever saw was "Anime Iku". One issue, published by a couple Canadians in the Toronto area. Spotty distribution, terrible content. Here's what I wrote about it at the time:
-the actual anime content is a one-page review of Air Gear and one page of capsule reviews of fansubs.
-Jam-packed with typos, the magazine manages to spell its editors name two different ways. I am "dissapoimented" with the "ridicilious" amount of typos in this magazine.
-There are no ads other than blocky 72 dpi house ads.
-Convention reports are: an incredibly mean-spirited review of Con No Baka, a review of a one-day show at the Rochester Institute Of Technology, and reviews of two small Hobbystar shows. The review of the December Hobbystar show is basically a continuation of how much everybody hated Con No Baka. Conventions are judged on ticket prices - the March Hobbystar show cost $25, which this magazine helpfully informs us could be spent on 5 McDonalds specials or 50 McDonalds cheeseburgers. The author expresses amazement at how much more the March show cost, and in the VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH writes about how much larger the March show was in terms of convention center space. Wow, I wonder if those two facts are connected. The word "Hobbystar" is never mentioned.
The Con No Baka review was inexplicably hateful. The con was a failure, there was never going to be another one, the organizer was ten thousand dollars in debt - and writing a big whiny review six months after the fact is the work of a profoundly insecure individual desperate to find somebody weaker to beat up on.
Anime North is not mentioned except in passing.
-4 pages on how to pick up girls at anime cons. This consists of 2 pages of setup, 1 page of actual rules (think positive, have good posture, maintain eye contact, have something to say), and 1 page with a big picture of a "Bleach chain".
-1 page on con survival tips, which includes the helpful advice, repeated here exactly as printed: "Water bottle-a lot of attendee's neglect to bring their own water, thus they got cough up for very expensive water bottles they could have brought home for free. Saving 2-3 bucks goes along way" (sic).
-1 page article on glomping, which is described thusly: "Supposedly originating from anime conventions, the term describes the sound of a hug and has since evolved into the verbal description of the act of hugging a cosplayer." I guess there is a big controversy about the origin of "glomping", hence the "supposedly."
-6 pages of photos of the model from the cover, who doesn't get to keep the costume and isn't happy about it. 7 pages, if you count the back cover
-4 pages of photos of the O.F.F. Cosplay Group. They have won 3 (three!!) awards for cosplay at anime conventions, so, as the magazine says, they are "the hottest all girl cosplay group". Their website no longer works, so I guess they aren't the hottest any more.
-1 page interview with a Canadian Glico representative about Pocky. This is actually the most interesting part of the magazine.
-Sidebar articles about how the editor took a vacation in St. Thomas and was shocked to find there are Sanrio stores in other countries, and how somebody on a reality show came out dressed as characters from Wizard Of Oz (hence, cosplay).
-Defensive, rambling editorial about Coca Cola Zero, how they don't pay writers or models, and how "you can read anime reviews of 5 year old, dubbed, imported anime anywhere else, but no where else will you read so much about you. And I didn't mean that in a gay way."
-1 page devoted to a photo of the photoshopped Pikachu gerbil and a plea for readers to send in their photos of their pets wearing costumes. And a plea for whoever created the "Pikachu mouse" to contact them so they may be properly credited.
-A page of fan art and a page of "rants" which complains about wannabe Japanese and about people who complain about bad English dubbing.
Animenominous we couldn't pronounce or spell. Not a bad magazine, spotty distribution, heavy on the cutesy Urusei Yatsura stuff as I recall. Borderline zine-type content.
Animag got a lot of mileage out of that Zeta Gundam episode guide that they printed in installments and it took longer to see print than the actual TV show did to watch. Also one time they printed something that a C/FO member wrote, and they didn't give the C/FO member proper credit, and the head of the C/FO made a much bigger deal out of it than was really appropriate or necessary. Wouldn't be the first time that particular C/FO head would do such a thing, and that's part of why there isn't a C/FO any more.
Animerica started off with a big article on Macross II and how great it was. Since Macross II sucked, I mean SUUUUUUUCKED, it kind of tainted Animerica with the "corporate shill" brush. Lasted a long time but I never bought it.
Animeco was a magazine published out of Hawaii and it was laid out and printed really nicely and professionally and the content was typo-riddled, sub-fanzine drivel. One article about our fan parody group managed to completely miss the point of what we were doing and why we were doing it.
V-Max was as I recall heavy on the Gundam, SPT Layzner, Votoms, realistic SF robot fighting stuff that appealed to RPG gamers, which is good as it was published by an RPG gaming publisher. Once was on a panel at an early Anime Central where the editor sat in the audience and loudly argued with my predictions that anime would become mainstream pop culture entertainment in America. This was before Sailor Moon and Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, before the big anime boom, so I bet he feels kind of silly now.
Anime-zine had great mid-80s design but the articles were basically fan newsletter stuff. I mean synopses, like "here's what happens in Dirty Pair episode 5" kind of thing.
I pretty much assumed New Type USA would be a corporate shill for ADV. Was I right? At this point I don't know if it matters.
Anime Insider was not ever going to write about anything I was going to be interested in
Otaku USA actually paid me to write about Space Battleship Yamato, Speed Racer, and Captain Harlock. It is THE WINNER
here are some losers:
I took this photo at 2011's AWA. These were all $1 each.
Hands down the worst North American anime magazine I ever saw was "Anime Iku". One issue, published by a couple Canadians in the Toronto area. Spotty distribution, terrible content. Here's what I wrote about it at the time:
-the actual anime content is a one-page review of Air Gear and one page of capsule reviews of fansubs.
-Jam-packed with typos, the magazine manages to spell its editors name two different ways. I am "dissapoimented" with the "ridicilious" amount of typos in this magazine.
-There are no ads other than blocky 72 dpi house ads.
-Convention reports are: an incredibly mean-spirited review of Con No Baka, a review of a one-day show at the Rochester Institute Of Technology, and reviews of two small Hobbystar shows. The review of the December Hobbystar show is basically a continuation of how much everybody hated Con No Baka. Conventions are judged on ticket prices - the March Hobbystar show cost $25, which this magazine helpfully informs us could be spent on 5 McDonalds specials or 50 McDonalds cheeseburgers. The author expresses amazement at how much more the March show cost, and in the VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH writes about how much larger the March show was in terms of convention center space. Wow, I wonder if those two facts are connected. The word "Hobbystar" is never mentioned.
The Con No Baka review was inexplicably hateful. The con was a failure, there was never going to be another one, the organizer was ten thousand dollars in debt - and writing a big whiny review six months after the fact is the work of a profoundly insecure individual desperate to find somebody weaker to beat up on.
Anime North is not mentioned except in passing.
-4 pages on how to pick up girls at anime cons. This consists of 2 pages of setup, 1 page of actual rules (think positive, have good posture, maintain eye contact, have something to say), and 1 page with a big picture of a "Bleach chain".
-1 page on con survival tips, which includes the helpful advice, repeated here exactly as printed: "Water bottle-a lot of attendee's neglect to bring their own water, thus they got cough up for very expensive water bottles they could have brought home for free. Saving 2-3 bucks goes along way" (sic).
-1 page article on glomping, which is described thusly: "Supposedly originating from anime conventions, the term describes the sound of a hug and has since evolved into the verbal description of the act of hugging a cosplayer." I guess there is a big controversy about the origin of "glomping", hence the "supposedly."
-6 pages of photos of the model from the cover, who doesn't get to keep the costume and isn't happy about it. 7 pages, if you count the back cover
-4 pages of photos of the O.F.F. Cosplay Group. They have won 3 (three!!) awards for cosplay at anime conventions, so, as the magazine says, they are "the hottest all girl cosplay group". Their website no longer works, so I guess they aren't the hottest any more.
-1 page interview with a Canadian Glico representative about Pocky. This is actually the most interesting part of the magazine.
-Sidebar articles about how the editor took a vacation in St. Thomas and was shocked to find there are Sanrio stores in other countries, and how somebody on a reality show came out dressed as characters from Wizard Of Oz (hence, cosplay).
-Defensive, rambling editorial about Coca Cola Zero, how they don't pay writers or models, and how "you can read anime reviews of 5 year old, dubbed, imported anime anywhere else, but no where else will you read so much about you. And I didn't mean that in a gay way."
-1 page devoted to a photo of the photoshopped Pikachu gerbil and a plea for readers to send in their photos of their pets wearing costumes. And a plea for whoever created the "Pikachu mouse" to contact them so they may be properly credited.
-A page of fan art and a page of "rants" which complains about wannabe Japanese and about people who complain about bad English dubbing.
Except Comic Party, but that was because it was an anime about people making comics and doujinshi. And yes, they always covered the same titles over and over again. 