From the Forest

Most animation in Japan is made for TV. In the last two years, TV shows have been busily coming and going in half-year cycles instead of one full-year cycle. These days, in the space of a half-year, approximately ten new animated shows start up, so the animation magazines have been selecting shows to feature according to their various styles. They all report on the new shows, but each of them has a different show they’ll push.

Besides editorial policy, the relationships they’ve built up with the various production studies show prominently on their pages. For example, DRAGON BALL is a title from the high-profile publisher Shueisha, so it’s hard to run features on it. But since ANIMAGE has had a long-time relationship with Toei, they can print color splash features on DRAGON BALL.¹ Also, perhaps MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM creator Yoshiyuki Tomino was writing a serialized novel for them, NEWTYPE gives the impression of being the GUNDAM magazine.

Since the emergence of shows with a half-year life expectancy, Kadokawa Shoten titles have become prominent. At least three Kadokawa titles are animated a season, so when it comes to coverage, Kadokawa Shoten’s NEWTYPE has no equal. Due to their connection, they get all the dibs on commissioned cel works for their feature splashes. Conversely, whenever a Hayao Miyazaki movie is coming out, it belongs to ANIMAGE, longtime publisher of NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND.

So depending on which publisher’s story is being animated, the magazine that does the best feature coverage changes, although a recent trend for all has been the running of features according to the voice-actors starring in the shows. But all these unique tastes of the various magazines disappear in the face of a hit title. A while back, such a title would have been SAILOR MOON. Because GUNDAM‘s rights holder Kodansha didn’t have an anime magazine of its own, there was a time when all the magazines featured GUNDAM in everything from the cover through the color pages.

Going above even GUNDAM is NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. The manga was serialized in a Kadokawa magazine, so it was supposed to be a NEWTYPE exclusive. But the show’s popularity blew that away. Rei Ayanami made the covers of all the magazines, starting with ANIMAGE. Then, in the beginning of November, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION‘s theatrical release was announced for next spring, so the magazines are sure to be in fierce competition with their features.² So, if ti’s a popular work that generates a big fan movement, business rights and old relationships take second stage. But conversely, since there’s no other show equal in popularity to NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, each magazine still has to distinguish itself by establishing its own style.

A producer once told me, “Infozines tend to print praising articles, because of relationships with advertisers. But you can always tell when they’re just paying lip service or if the editor really is in love with that show.” As for NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, every editor from every magazine was in love with it. And since the movie is going to be in the same format as the IDEON³ movie that they were so influenced by in their impressionable childhood years, each magazine is sure to run grand features on it.