According to ANN, ADV is discontinuing Newtype USA. No reason why, just that a “new, unnamed” magazine will take it’s place. To be honest, I’m not going to miss Newtype USA. Of all the anime/manga magazines out there, this one had the greatest potential that was completely wasted by ADV. But then, that’s no surprise either. I remember the excitement at the news that Newtype would be coming to the US in an english form. Newtype was the bible to anime back in the day (and I mean the 80’s when I say that). Getting a version here was awesome news to the anime fan. And then…ADV got a hold of it. It became a big, glossy ad for ADV advertisers, and not the premiere magazine on anime that it should have been.
Up until this year, there was no anime/manga magazine that I thought was worth my time. Anime Insider, from Wizard, it just another Wizard magazine cosplaying. There aren’t any real reviews and nothing bad is said about the advertisers products. Protoculture Addicts…it was a nice fanzine, but really lost it when it became a published magazine. I just don’t feel I can trust what’s said in it, with all the mistakes, that could/should be caught by simple editing. (By the way, Ichigo’s dad in Bleach runs a hospital, not funeral home). No, the only magazine that I’ll read now is Otaku USA.
I was skeptical of the magazine at first. When I heard the publishing company that does Sci-Fi magazine was also going to be doing this, I had nothing but sad, ugly visions in my head. But, I got the first issue anyway, and I loved it! It’s a magazine written by fans, for fans. The reviewers and staff really know their stuff. And they are people you’ve heard of: Patrick Macias, Anime World Order Podcast crew, Ed Chavez of Mangacast, and Jason Thompson of Manga: the Complete Guide. They cover every genre, give good reviews of manga and anime, and have a preview of a new manga in every issue. I’ve enjoyed all my issues of Otaku USA, and I haven’t even looked at the complimentary disks that come with it yet!
If you want to get an anime magazine with good, reliable information, then just go get a copy of Otaku USA. It’s cheaper than Newtype USA anyway.
(No, I wasn’t paid to write this)
2 Comments
I found volume one in the magazine racks of a grocery store (in Canada) last summer and within 15 minutes reading Otaku USA I was online and subscribing to it.
I had resisted all the other magazines because they didn’t cover the material I was interested in and in particular, NEWTYPE USA because it just seemed to be a giant ad, flogging ADV properties. If they reviewed something else it was dreadfully biased (or so it seemed to me).
The candor and enthusiasm of the writing in Otaku USA, as well as the variety of genres they, covered blew me out of the water. THIS was the kind of magazine I was looking for. They wanted to talk shojo, shonen…and seinen, yaoi, guro and all the other manga sub-genres.
At Otaku USA they seem to realize that females are fans too….and not just the odd shojo bone was being thrown our way. There is more to anime and manga than fanservicing the boys with mecha and girls in sailor bathingsuits *cough*. And the audience isn’t all 16 years old either!
I hope they they continue doing a great job for years to come. 🙂
Otaku USA does have at least two staff writers that I can think of, Clarrisa and Erin. Both are on podcasts as well as writing for Otaku USA. It is really nice to get that female perspective without it going all girly. Though they both do yaoi too, but I don’t think there’d be much if any coverage of that sub genre without them.
I happy with Otaku USA. It’s the anime mag I need. I sometimes get Protoculture Addicts, but it’s just for the pretty pictures.