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Japan's New Animage Original Mag to Target Older Fans
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten announced that it will launch Animage Original, a new spinoff from its Animage anime magazine that will target older fans, on June 30. Tokuma Shoten describes the new magazine as "another Animage for adults who grew up with Animage." The first issue plans to cover Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Dennō Coil, The Sky Crawlers, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Clannad, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, and other titles. The current Animage magazine increased its page size in June of 1998, but Animage Original will use a smaller, modified A4-paper-size format similar to the size that Animage was over a decade ago. (The A4 paper size is similar to the North American letter paper size.) However, Animage Original will charge a higher price (1,365 yen or about US$12.60) for all-color pages.
Not coincidentally, Animage is the longest running anime magazine — it celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, and it is older than its main audience of teenagers. Other magazines that have targeted young adult anime fans have included Yosensha's Otona Anime, Ohta Books' Continue, and Nikkei BP's Nikkei Characters. However, Nikkei Characters ceased publication in 2006.
Source: animeanime.jp
