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Manga/Magazines
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 21 January 2004 00:00 |
 Away from pretty & unreadable to less-pretty & proper English. The Japanese version of Newtype is almost iconic as the
major anime magazine (despite it's blanket "moving pictures magazine"
banner, there's not a lot outside anime & related items in there),
so an English-language version was always going to be welcomed by fans.
I've been buying it since issue #1, but here's my first review of it...
For this issue, there's the following attractions:
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (again!)
- .hack in its various forms
- Inside Toei Animation
- 2003 Holiday Buyers Guide
...and the usual regular features & manga insert. Cover DVD & centerfold is Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, while Fruits Basket gets the postcard treatment.
Firstly, enough with the Gundam SEED already!! Seems to be a
contractual requirement to feature this every month. I suppose it would
be okay if I liked the show, but I got bored with SEED somewhere around episode 20...
The Abenobashi episode on the DVD (#1, naturally) probably
doesn't give the best impression of the show - it's mainly
scene-setting & the real fun doesn't start until episode 2, so be
warned if you make a buying (or not-buying) decision based off this
disc. Nice centerfold, though, if missing in Megami-style nosebleed value.
Otherwise it's the usual mix of highly detailed articles, buyers information & charts that you get from NT/USA every month. I'd be a lot happier if it was less reliant on Gundam
than it has been of late, but there's still plenty of reading here to
keep you out of trouble for a while. If you're looking for bishoujo,
look elsewhere, but otherwise, worth buying. |
