ADV Screws Up Big

[Black Aeronaut]

Today, I have discover that in February 2008, ADV decided to cease publication of one of my favorite magazines, Newtype USA. It replaced it with something
slightly different called PiQ which expanded their coverage of Anime, Manga, and other Japanese goodness to include the American equivilant. As expected, the
reception was luke-warm and PiQ itself is no longer in publication.

So, that said, can anyone recomend a good publication that covers Anime, Manga, and other Japanese goodness? It'd be easier for me to keep track living
here in Japan, except I can't read Japanese.

[robkelk]

For anime and manga coverage, I like http://www.protoculture.ca/Proto/index.htm]Protoculture Addicts.

For other Japanese goodness, there's the http://www.hiraganatimes.com/]Hiragana Times (which will also help you learn to read Japanese - all of their stories are in both Japanese and English).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[LilFluff]

The decision to switch to PiQ puzzled me. It's not like there weren't multiple magazines out there, established and new, aiming for the same market
that PiQ was going for. And while NewTypeUSA might not have been the only anime and manga focused magazine, it did appear to have the best distribution. I have
only recently regularly seen Protoculture Addicts at Borders, as well as two others I can't remember the titles of at the moment. PA I only remember seeing
regularly after NewTypeUSA was cancelled.

I seem to recall hearing that switching from the NewType title to PiQ was a cost cutting decision, since as PiQ they would no longer have to pay a licensing
fee on the NewType name. But surely there was a way around that.

Although I think the true initial stumbling block was when they temporarily made the promo DVDs and some of the other items a subscriber only perk. Without the
issues being shrink wrapped I got in the habit of giving the table of contents a quick once-over before buying. Before that I have purchased every issue on the
newstand. And that habit carried over to giving the front cover and web site a good look before buying.

Getting hit for not subscribing was annoying, as I probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy those DVDs even if I had subscribed. The postal box here at
the aparments is rather small, so I probably would have ended up with quite a few disc halves to enjoy.
-----

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

[Berk]

There was no way around the licensing of the name, as Newtype is owned by Kadokawa Shoten and ADV is not.

And after they lost the money from Sojitz there was no way they weren't going to have to do some serious cutbacks.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Black Aeronaut]

I had to do some quick Google-fu to figure out what that Sojitz business was all about and I found this on Wikipedia...

Sojitz Fallout
In June 2006, ADV Films entered in to a partnership with the Japanese Sojitz Corporation. This was done as a means of acquiring more titles in the Japanese market.[8] From this point on, virtually all titles that ADV acquired were with Sojitz's help. However, in January 2008, ADV mysteriously removed a large number of titles from their website.[9] All the titles removed were titles acquired since the Sojitz collaboration including Gurren Lagann, which had test disks sent out with dubbed episodes. As of May 2008, the ownership of these titles has not been confirmed. Gurren Lagann was re-licensed by Bandai Entertainment. ADV Films made booth appearances at the Anime Central 2008 convention, but they canceled their planned panel.[10] In July 2008, FUNimation Entertainment announced the acquisition of thirty of these titles.

Well, that explains a bit.  Doesn't mean that I have to like the results.  This still ticks me off because Newtype was the only magazine that I could count on for an all-in-one package of a highly informative magazine, cool poster, DVD full 'o' goodness, and a new manga title to check out.  When they decided to cutback, they picked the wrong thing to cut back on.
Also, this explains why Funimation has suddenly gained an ass-load of titles that they normally wouldn't have had access to.

[Berk]

The industry, such as it is, is a dog's breakfast right now.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[robkelk]

The industry, such as it is, is in the same state it was in when the last anime fad ended, a couple of decades ago. It's just more visible this time.

While certain companies may fold, I believe the industry as a whole probably isn't going anywhere...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Berk]

This is why I said 'right now.'
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Black Aeronaut]

Joy.

Ah well, there will always be Fansubbers, because by the time the industry turns its guns against them they probably won't have the funds to afford such
litigation. At least, if they don't want to completely ruin themselves financially, and if they do that then there won't be many people left to
challenge the Fansubbers. Democracy rules, eh?

As for the loss of NewtypeUSA (and even its ill-fated succesor, PiQ)... It is one that I shall mourn quietly from here on out.

Mental Note: If current anime surge from corporations is just an ill-fated fad, then continue to download fansubs, even if they have been licensed.

[LilFluff]

Berk wrote:

---

There was no way around the licensing of the name, as Newtype is owned by Kadokawa Shoten and ADV is not.




And after they lost the money from Sojitz there was no way they weren't going to have to do some serious cutbacks.

I realized that they didn't own the Newtype name, just a license to use it. But one would hope that if they had approached Kadokawa to say, "Hey, the
market is in a slump right now. We still have a lock on the market, but it isn't worth as much money right now. Let's rationalize the licensing
fees..." that they might have been able to keep going. Perhaps dropping to bimonthly issues (didn't they start with bimonthly issues?) Then again,
perhaps they did and the answer was, "No, if things are that bad then we'll just wait for it to get better and bid out the license again."

Or perhaps the budget was in such bad shape that even renegotiating the licensing fee wouldn't have helped. In which case PiQ was probably doomed from the
start.

So, what is the opinion on the modern Protoculture Addicts? I think the last issue I bought was back in... Hmm... Pre-2000. Long enough back for it to have
articles with Mekton stats for mecha from anime of the day. Perhaps late enough to have mention of Heavy Gear 1st Edition.
-----

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

[Black Aeronaut]

I recently picked up one of the older PDF format copies (that's something refreshing). I haven't had time lately to go over it in depth, but when I do
I'll let you know about what I think. As I have mentioned before, what I'll be missing the most are the extra goodies like posters, manga inserts, and
DVD's full of pilot episodes and previews.

[Berk]

Part of the problem with the Newtype situation was, in fact, patently absurd licensing fees that nobody would allow to be renegotiated, I figure.

They do that for shows all the time. Why not the magazine?
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Black Aeronaut]

And they simply couldn't rename the magazine? It's not like whoever owned the original copyrights to Newtype could dictate what another magazine of a
different name can and can't do.

[Berk]

The Newtype name license probably came with formatting licensing as well, for the distinctive way that Newtype always formats its articles.

Once you've taken the name and appearance away, you may as well have a whole new magazine.

In theory the magazine won't fundamentally change if you have the same writers on board. But, of course, some people just by the magazine for the looks
regardless of what is theoretically inside.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Black Aeronaut]

Dunno. PCGamer's changed its overall look several times in the past few years. The only thing that really looks the same as it did back in 1998 is the
title header. That said, I could really care less about the formatting and the name. What I like is the content and that's no longer available.

[Berk]

I don't really know what to say about the whole NewType -> PiQ fiasco, really. Someone somewhere in ADV dropped the ball, and that's all there is to
it.

I personally hadn't paid a lot of attention to anything that came out in magazine format.. But glancing over the description of the magazine, it looked
like they made an attempt to broaden their demographic, which was likely a big mistake right then and there. A loss of advertising money suggests to me that
they failed to pitch the changeover very well to the people who had bought ad space.

Mismanagement, gotta loathe it.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Black Aeronaut]

Funny thing - shortly before I made the horrifying discovery, I was looking through the magazine racks and found PiQ, so I bought that instead of the
NewtypeUSA I was looking for. Really, it was a wonderful magazine because it covers all that other awesome stuff that gets touted here on the boards quite
frequently. However, I think that what really turned the customer base against them was not the reader-depreciating terminology in the editorials or anything
else like that. What really hurt them, I think, was that there simply wasn't all that much content on anime, manga, j-music, and light novels anymore. PiQ
would only cover a few anime and manga titles in an issue - no more or less than any other American entertainment magazine that didn't have asian
pop-culture as a focus.

Now, if they had simply just upped the sheer amount of content to include the American entertainment industry without sacrificing any of the ordinary Japanese
entertainment content... Why hell! I wouldn't have cared if the magazine had been cut down to a quarterly! Well, maybe I would have, but still...