Today I was in my local Borders and saw a stack of PiQ not too far from Play and a number of “pop culture” magazines like Hi-Fructose. I flipped through it and bought it. . . not knowing that it was the “replacement” of NTUSA.

From my first scan, it is superior to NTUSA. I appreciate the editorial mix of PiQ and the more “standard” format. I don’t miss the articles on “how to draw manga” and “what’s going on a CLAMP”, nor do I miss the super-ernest, multi-page stories about anime. Granted, I could have done without the article on Avatar, but that’s just me.

If I could only buy one magazine of this sort, however, I’d still prefer Blackfish Publishing’s “Deathray”, which can also be found at better Borders. Even with its UK bent, it gathers together all of the topics that seem to be of interest to the PiQ editors, and does it better.

That said, PiQ is a fun read, and given its focus on “anime plus other stuff”, it gets the job done. Pick it up with PLAY and you’ve got a nice one-two punch for reading on the train.

bob

And considering the impressive number of female otaku, the “seventy-percent male” goal flat out bewilders me.

(Unfortunately, if ADV really wanted to make mad money, they’d open a yaoi magazine. I’m just saying.)

A sad farewell to a magazine I have bought and then subscribed to since November of 2003.

I have to say even though I haven’t seen the new format I am pretty disappointed. I think NTUSA really was the best out there. Even though I only read about 50 to 60% of each issue. I really like the large design and the Japanese back to front style. The free DVD in every issue was great. It always gave you something new to watch immediately. This usually gave me something to look forward to and start watching, or maybe collecting. This is how I Found Air Gear, which I’m currently enjoying very much. The Kids Love the posters which I usually give them. The mange always reminded me that I need to go buy a couple more issues.

I have been very impatiently awaiting the Appleseed Ex Machina (March 11th), so it was interesting seeing the sample cover. Well, I may go subscribe to Otaku, but I guess I should see what this 2 yr commitment will bring in.

I’m told my remaining subscription will be honoured 2-for-1 as well, so I’m happy with that – just hope it’s Any Good…

Newtype USA stood out for me as a must-have magazine – even having it imported specially as I live in the UK. I particularly liked the Japanese format, the innovative and eye catching design, unbiased reviews, a wider outlook on Japanese culture (with Japanese contributers!) and of course that DVD.

Naturally, with all those gone I feel it’s going to be a very different magazine. I’m going to wait until I see it in the flesh before passing judgement. I just hope it can retain some of that Japanese ‘uniqueness’ and not just blend into the background – retaining Newtype’s staff should at least help with this.

On a side note, why not do with anime what Tokyopop does for manga – the Tokyopop Sneak Peeks (peeks… rings any bells?) have a sample of various manga for a reasonable price. Imagine a monthly DVD release in the same vein… I would certainly buy such a thing.

That said, your comment is really interesting. I think that, in general when it comes to anime culture, women (females) really do get the short end of the stick, with releases like Princess Tutu seeming like mana from heaven for most avid viewers, when there really is a ton of material out there to be licensed and enjoyed. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy the manga side of things so much more, the diversity of the material is wonderful. I do think it’s unfortunate that something as ‘neutral’ as NTUSA had to go away, but really, it’s NEWTYPE, you know? Gundam nerds and dudes that want to fuck Rei Ayanami are the #1 readership demo of this magazine in Japan, so it was never THAT female friendly. I think that Protoculture Addicts is a good example of something that is truly nerdcore, almost regardless of gender…

I think Shoujo beat is selling a little under half of Shonen Jump, which illustrates the relative difference in size for the audience of a lot of this material, but both magazines are selling phenomenally well too, so I think there’s room for something on the stands lit NTUSA… OTAKU USA for example.

I’m really curious about PiQ, more about the tone that the articles take rather than the content. It’s easy to cover boy-stuff without turning away the girls, but it’s even easier to turn your magazine into a toxic wasteland of “match the face to the boobs” articles.

- Christopher

full disclosure: i’m talking to senior editor kevin gifford in AIM as i type this, so you could say that i am less than objective about the whole PiQ situation in the sense that this relates to the mortgage of one of my personal friends.

by the same token, i am a reasonably outspoken critic of the anime and publishing industries.

my reaction is that this is more like stuff or maxim for geeks, minus the breastises, really. just based on the graphic design and the attitude of the faux-cover. i do not have any inside infoz to confirm or deny this, as kevin is correctly circumspect about these things.

i think that data that has come out publically makes it clear that the newtype USA business model was not working. now, the thing that would interest me is to find out how much of that was related to the obvious things (paying for the NT license, losing geneon as an advertiser) and how much of that was due to its editorial direction. one thing i think was great about newtype was its gender-neutral design; this screams male, though of course, using appleseed as the cover material really helps enhance that, so this could be related only to the sample image to a large extent.

as was pointed out in the original post, male-targeting the mag really does increase its advertising potnetial. given that geneon going kerblooey was a probable major contributing factor to the death of NTUSA (geneon was its biggest adveritser) creating new baskets for their eggs seems like a great idea from a “keeping the magazine running” perspective. but it does make it seem less interesting.

but yes, as is rightly pointed out repeatedly, we really do have no clue what the thing will really be like. so that’s something i’m very much looking forward to finding out.

viva piq!

I appreciate that you have your opinions about this, positive or negative, but lets all remember that we haven’t actually seen the magazine yet, just gotten an idea of what it might include. I can think of lots of great video game, movie, and gadget coverage that would totally appeal to anime fans, let alone otaku.

- Chris

I’m rather disappointed by this, but I guess we could have seen it coming. The price point was too high. I could sell Japanese Newtype for less than the American version and still had a few people picking it up. All most people wanted it for was the “free” DVD anyway and a couple of times I found the freshly purchased magazine laying on the ground outside the store with DVD removed. So I guess ADV could have made a killing putting a couple first episodes and a few trailers on a DVD and selling them for $12.

I don’t know about advertisers, but being in the anime business, I’d want more bang for my buck, so I’d be more inclined to advertise in a place I *knew* anime fans were reading. Thank goodness Otaku USA & Protoculture Addicts are still around.

The decision to cover more gaming content is also not especially shocking when you consider that most of Newtype’s senior staff came from the gaming mags at Ziff-Davis. (Before Newtype, Gary Steinman was the number-two editor on Official US PlayStation Magazine.)