Neo Magazine Issue #6 out now

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Issue 6 of Asian pop culture magazine NEO is out now. This month's edition puts the Gundam franchise under the microscope, previews the incoming Read or Die TV series and discusses several popular Western stories that have been converted to manga graphic novels (Star Wars being the latest). As always, you should be able to find NEO in your local WH Smiths, Borders and Forbidden Planet (to name but a few).
 
This is the first issue I just couldn't bring myself to buy! Probably the worst front cover to date and the contents are just too naff for words (or for my £3.50 anyway!!). So I shall see what issue 7 has in store before I decide to give up totally on Neo (I can buy a manga for less money than 2 issues of Neo :( ).
 
Im not sure ive actually liked any of the NEO magazine covers :? . I wasnt going to buy the last issue , but I did eventually. Not really sure if I will with this one though. I suppose it depends if I see it and I have the money with me.
 
I tend to read it for the editorials and the occasional bit of insider news. To be honest though, I don't think the magazine is being aimed at "dedicated" people like us who get our anime fix online. It's more for casual buyers.

With regards to the reviews, I thought it was interesting they gave Full Metal Alchemist #1 a 5 out of 5 score. Having seen the entire series, I would say it takes around 15-20 episodes for FMA to really become "essential" viewing. The first four episodes didn't immediately strike me as being the beginning of an admitedly classic show.
 
Well I didn't quite have the guts to tell Neo directly what I thought but this person did!! Sums up just about what I think as well I guess!!

My 6 months subscription just ran out after recieving Issue 6 and i'm hesistating whether to resume it on the basis that this magazine still doesn't have the kind of Anime Coverage i have come to expect.

Also the reviews section takes up to many pages which could be used for Anime. I'd rather check reviews at Animeondvd.com than read Neo's reviews. The Neo Staff never go into Technical details like Video, Audio Quality and Extras which i think is very important. Instead Neo reviews the Anime Content on those episodes which i find too basic coming from a professionally written magazine.

Overall i've found Neo to be too lightweight and child orientated (takes the front covers for example) however i will still contemplate over renewing my subscription!
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Neo was never meant to be a purely anime magazine, though, was it, they're going for a more general 'culture' coverage. Having had horrible problems finding it in the shops, Issue 3 was the only one I managed to pick up until I took out a six-month subscription starting with number 6 (which was delivered to my home address rather than the university, hence I haven't seen it yet). Right now I'm not 100% sure about the magazine, but by the time the subscription runs out I should be in a better position to judge it.

It seems to me though that Neo is in a difficult position right now, they've chosen to give the magazine poentially appeal to a greater audience than just anime fans, but the casual buyers Paul mentioned may be more inclined to pick up other magazines, (especially if they can't find Neo in stores), whilst the more dedicated anime fans may not be quite finding it to their taste.
 
I actually prefer that their DVD reviews don't go into technical detail; real opinions on a show are far more interesting than talking about aspect ratios and surround sound etc. Basically, some anime fans are way too materialistic.
 
i wasn't as impressed wit htis issue as some of the previous ones, but that's more down to my own personal tastes. the Gundam feature was interesting and the reviews were as good as ever, if not quite detailed enough as some of you guys pointed out. i'll definitely continue to read it in future though.
 
i wasent too impressed with this issue either. i mean, the lame so called 'free comice' we get in the past few issues are so crap and lame. they could at least give a free dvd, with like and ep of some new anime releases (like they do in newtype USA , (it may be expensive, but they could be sponsered by MVM or ADV films UK, or something.....)

and the only fron cover i liked was the FMA one.

and just to complain again, they could give some proper free content, that we anime fans can actually appreciate.!!!!

just to note.

i think there may be a Newtype UK on the way soon. cos on the ADV films uk website they had a poll asking where would u prefer to buy the newtype mag, on their website, or in the high street
 
i guess NEO is a fledgling project so it's going to take a few issues for them to get a better idea of what us readers want - i still see it as being in the experimental stages and i'm sure it will get better over time. still, the possibility of a Newtype UK mag may encourage them even more...
 
Ninja Boy! said:
they could at least give a free dvd, with like and ep of some new anime releases (like they do in newtype USA , (it may be expensive, but they could be sponsered by MVM or ADV films UK, or something.....)
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Contrary to popular anime forum belief, it is not simple a case of NEO asking for episodes from publishers to put on a DVD. Getting permission to obtain single episodes or trailers from publishers has never been an issue - most are falling over backwards to provide content.

The real issue is this: The cost of authoring, manufacturing, packaging and obtaining a mandatory BBFC certification for a DVD promotion on NEO would cost at least £10,000-£12,000 (and that's a low estimation).

Newtype USA is able to provide a 'free' DVD for a number of reasons: the different certification rules in America; the magazine's publisher, ADV Films, is able to provide its already certificated content; ADV also has the facilities to author and manufacture the DVD; and the magazine retail price is considerably higher than that of the average mag.

As mentioned in previous discussions regarding a DVD promotion, NEO is unable to provide a free DVD unless a publisher is willing to cover a significant percentage of the prohibitive production costs (and none have committed as yet), or the magazine cover price is raised to cover the cost (probably to at least £5.99, in line with the official videogame magazines).

After thorough market research, NEO has concluded that the UK market is still very much a niche and not yet large enough to support such promotional activity.

That's not to say that we have not already put in place significant plans for a promotional DVD, but we will only do so when the time and product is right.
 
that's more or less what i figured - freebies would only push the price up and it is still early days. keep up the good work though Stu - it's good to have a UK-focused magazine full stop!
 
It's a fallacy that freebies are infact free!!
I don't think a sample DVD would encourage me to buy Neo. I'm not really even sure what would encourage me to buy Neo. Maybe factual information about anime or manga creators, info you can't readily find on a basic simple internet search!
I think in future, whether I buy Neo or not, will come down to the content and whether I'm interested in it!
 
Well for the first time I saw the magazine in my local WH Smith today , so I ended up buying it ( normally have to travel to the next town to find a copy ). I did enjoy the R.O.D The TV coverage to be fair , but other than that there wasnt really much that I found interesting. Oh , and yes this is my least favourite cover to date.

Paul said:
I tend to read it for the editorials and the occasional bit of insider news. To be honest though, I don't think the magazine is being aimed at "dedicated" people like us who get our anime fix online. It's more for casual buyers.
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I agree here , obviously the casual market is what NEO needs to aim itself at to sell copies . I don't think the UK has the market size for a magazine aimed at more "dedicated" fans. I can't blame them for aiming at the majority, it just means I personally find the magazine lacking.

Paul said:
I actually prefer that their DVD reviews don't go into technical detail; real opinions on a show are far more interesting than talking about aspect ratios and surround sound etc. Basically, some anime fans are way too materialistic.
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I do actually quite like the reviews for NEO , I really dont care about aspect ratios and surround sound etc.. , I'd just like to know what a shows like content wise most of the time.

Not suprised about the news on the DvD front either, I guessed the production costs would be way to high for such a niche market. Personally Im not sure there will be a "Newtype UK" , I think its far more likely that ADV will make issues of their US magazine purchasable via their website.
 
i have to admit I'm not too bothered by the technical details when it comes to DVD reviews either, as I don't use or even have high end equipment I just tend to gloss over such things. And when it comes to promotional discs, well all my promotional game discs tend to end up in the bin after a while, they seem like a good thing at the time but in the long run they're not worth the cost.
 
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