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Sesho's Anime And Manga Reviews


May 21, 2009

Well, it's official, Shojo Beat is dead as far as the anthology magazine side of it goes. The manga imprint is going to carry on though. It has been reported that the July 2009 issue will be its last.

I was kinda taken aback. I thought the magazine was doing well. I always saw it right next to Shonen Jump and saw them as the perfect couple. I was first introduced to the mag when Animerica was cancelled halfway through my subscription and they offered to replace it with Shojo Beat. I said "what the hell" and received the first six issues. I couldn't really get into any of the titles. I wasn't very openminded about shojo series back then, and also, I don't take to anthologies very well. They make me think of literature textbooks that I had to read in college. But I really like Yen+.

Speaking of, I wonder how that magazine is doing for Yen? It must be doing allright or they wouldn't have released the first volumes of some of the manga series that are serialized in it. I'm way behind on it. I've bought every issue as it came out all the way to the present (but I've only read the first two issues!)

Magazines seem to be a dying breed. First, Animerica, Newtype, PIQ, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and now Shojo Beat. It's been about half a year or so since I saw an issue of Protoculture Addicts at my local book or comic store. What about Otaku USA? I remember a couple of months ago, they were going to go monthly, but scrapped those plans without a word. Anime Insider? Even though it sucked, a sucky anime/manga magazine is better than NO magazine at all.