The First Issue of PiQ Hits Magazine Racks. Should You Care?

The much-discussed dismal state of anime can be summed up with the demise of the anime-heavy (and expensive) NewtypeUSA mag which has now been replaced by a brand new mag named PiQ. PiQ's premiere issue comes several months after the first release of Otaku USA, a clear rival of NewtypeUSA, and whose fans like to take credit for shutting down.

Is PiQ going to give Otaku USA a run for its money?

Probably not anytime soon. PiQ has a lot of potential, and has picked up on Otaku USA's pan-media approach, but maybe has taken it a little too far.

The five year life of NewtypeUSA was thanks to support of its Japanese papa, Newtype, and USA's ADV. NewtypeUSA focused most of the magazine on the anime scenes in Japan, USA and the rest of the world. There is no point in beating a dead rag, but the first problem was the inclusion of a DVD every month, which shot the cover price up to $12.98 an issue. That alone was a barrier to much of its target readership. Other problems were too narrow a focus on anime. They picked up on manga early and in the end tried to include more games (mostly Japanese-style RPGs coming to America), but monthly interviews with voice actors and intros to new anime in Japan that may not appear in English for many months, if ever, were sections this reader could never get excited about.

Otaku USA's success at its launch is partially because it feels less corporate, even if style-wise it isn't a drastic change from the now deceased NewtypeUSA. Otaku USA feels like it is from well-connected fans, not from insiders, which makes their recommendations feel more believable and the attitude more legit. Where NewtypeUSA was mostly an anime mag, Otaku USA is a Japanese media mag. Much space is given to anime, manga, and yaoi reviews, but eye-opening introductions of other facets of otaku-dom, like Godzilla, plastic-modelers, Ultraman and yakuza movies, expanded the potential readership from mostly teens to...ahem...men my age that remember "Space Battleship Yamato" from TV during those formidable years. On the other hand, Otaku USA also requires the purchase of a DVD every issue. The inclusion of the "free DVD" knocks the price up to [edit] $9.99 every two months,(eventually it will become a monthly mag). My collection of Otaku USA and NewtypeUSA coasters is enough to host a large dinner party, and in 2008 to charge readers and extra four or five bucks to give them a few first episodes and commercials is a little hard to understand. Hello! Internet! If I really want to see the first ep of Ragnarok, then I really want to see the whole series, and, I am going to buy the DVD, or more than likely, rent it from Netflix. I know it's an advertising technique, but why do I have to pay for it?

So what does PiQ have to offer? A lot. The smaller size and $6.99 cover price makes it more affordable, thanks to the elimination of the monthly DVD. PiQ publishers have promised two issues for every single issue remaining for NewtypeUSA subscribers, which makes sense considering the cover price drop, but also says to me, "Give us a chance to catch our breath and get settled."

PiQ is all over the map. Where Otaku USA focuses mostly on Japanese media and 'indoor hobbies", PiQ seems like a mostly anime and manga mag for the first dozen pages until we run into a review of...Sweeney Todd?

We got...
Appleseed Ex Machina? Check.
Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII? Check.
Interview with lead from Tin Man? Umm...check...

I like that PiQ brings a variety of things together, and we wouldn't have likely seen an article about the live-action movie version of Honey and Clover in Newtype USA. The article in LARPing is interesting if not a little too nerd-centric (calling your readers "dorks" isn't funny to everyone,) and the showcase article asking the question everyone wants the answer to, "Is Anime Dead?" gives a good examination of the state of affairs. However, PiQ's tentacles are stretched pretty far out. Although not everyone will be interested in everything introduced, will enough people be interested in enough of it to keep PiQ going?

And there are some little things that need to be tweaked. Calling Scott Baio's "Zapped!" the "best '80s teen movie ever" sounds like something someone who never saw "Breakfast Club","Say Anything","Better Off Dead" would say...or "Zapped!", for that matter.

Like in NewtypeUSA "vital info" is shared on each title introduced. But what those "vitals" don't include is the name of the title. If I didn't know better and didn't read closely, I would guess that Appleseed Ex Machina was titled "Seeds in the Apple" and that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was titled "State in Crisis". The actual titles are only located in the articles, (though this problem doesn't appear in the List section.)

Also, the different sections don't feel that, well, different. It's not immediately clear to me what the differences are between the "Peek", "List", "Link" and "Monitor" sections are. The List items are supposed to be reviews, but so are several of the Peek items, and PiQ doesn't give grades on its reviews (neither do I, to be honest, so I would say we are both copping-out a little, but no one pays to read my reviews.)

These are all things that will surely clear up as the PiQ creators get their sea legs. Fans will tell them what they want more of, and what they don't need. I think bringing American comics and manga together in one magazine is a great idea, and I read about some admittedly major US titles I wouldn't have known much about, but how about some manga reviews? The Monitor section looks at some pretty neat toys, especially the Mobile Suit Gundam cell phone, but ending the first ish with a Crayon Shin-chan manga intro ended the issue on an uneven note.

In conclusion, it's too early to come to conclusions on PiQ quite yet. The talent is there. The design is there. PiQ can get the info and interviews, but what I'd like to see is a little more 'tude. That will come. I hope the readers will, too.