News

Kadokawa to Launch Newtype Spinoff Mag, Nyantype

Kadokawa Shoten has issued an advertising solicitation sheet for Nyantype, a Newtype spinoff magazine about anime and game bishōjo (pretty girl) characters that will ship in Japan at the end of April. Kadokawa plans to publish 90,000 copies of the first issue, which will have 170 pages in a modified A4 paper size. The magazine will serialize manga based on at least one unnamed popular franchise that has already been adapted into film. Kadokawa will launch a companion website for the latest news on bishōjo characters and a mail-order service. The mail order service will offer goods decorated by the magazine's exclusive illustrations.

The advertising solicitation sheet traces the roots of the current bishōjo fandom to the bishōjo game boom of Tokimeki Memorial and To Heart in the late 1990s. Sister Princess and Negima! Magister Negi Magi manga, games, and anime followed in the early 2000s. The later half of the current decade witnessed the debuts of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS anime. This year had the television anime premieres of Clannad After Story and Strike Witches.

Gakken, the publisher of Animedia magazine, has been printing a bishōjo magazine called Megami Magazine since 1999. Like Megami, Nyantype will include around 20 pin-up posters in every issue. Kadokawa launched Newtype Romance, a spinoff magazine that centers on bishōnen characters for female readers, as an ongoing periodical in 2006 after a preview issue in 2004. Kadokawa's irregularly published Newtype the Live magazine focuses on special-effects projects such as Kamen Rider and Toei's Ranger series. A similar advertising solicitation sheet revealed details of Macross Ace, another magazine that Kadokawa is launching early next year. Kadokawa says that Newtype has the largest print run of any anime magazine.